Birthday Traditions 6
by Kate McCaye
Summary: Sam has to celebrate without Daniel this year, but that doesn't mean she has to do it alone.
1. Jello and Pooh

It's been a while, so I'll do this properly...

Title: Birthday Traditions 6

Author: Kate McCaye

Rating: T (ooh, new ratings. Rated for language and use of alcohol.)

Pairing: S/J UST

Summary: Part/Year 6 of the "Birthday Traditions" series. Sam has to celebrate without Daniel, but that doesn't mean she has to do it alone.

A/N: Well, officially I'm no longer Kate McCaye anymore, it's Kate Cooper now (is there anything more saccharin than Kate and Carson Cooper? Say it out loud. It's a bit nauseating, right?) Anyway, I'm not going to change my Pen Name or anything, that was just my way of explaining why I haven't been posting anything for months. So, I'm married now, and currently almost five months pregnant with (cue trumpets) twins! I've got identical and fraternal in the family (I have a twin brother and my mother was an identical twin) so we'll see what sort of combo we end up with (I want to be surprised.) Anyway, the little buggers kept me throwing up continuously for a loooong time and I was just NOT in the mood to write. Now that I'm actually starting to put _on _some weight, things are calming down. Enough of that, you're here for the story.

It's been a very long time since I posted BT5, so I expect interest in this has waned a bit, but that's okay. I wanted to do this year properly, which meant putting off writing it until everything calmed down around here (or came back down to a normal level of crazy.) Also, I'm still having trouble with this story because it's got to be sad, but I want there to be some laughs here and there. I watched a bunch of Season 6 episodes to try to put me in the right place to write Jack and Sam in this story, and was surprised by how 'together' they are in that season, I had never really noticed it before. Without Daniel there, they exchange looks _all _the time. And although of course Sam has to be devastated in this story, I think Season 6 was where she really started to lighten up a bit, so I'll try to keep all of those things in mind as I work on finishing this. So... after that long explanation, if you're still interested... enjoy!

Ch 1: Jell-o and Pooh

Sam Carter looked up as her CO appeared in the doorway of her lab, having recognized his footsteps in the hallway.

"Busy?" he asked with a grin. He had a thing of jell-o in each hand, blue for her, red for him.

"You know what they say," she said, saving the work on her computer and rolling over to her lab table, while he took a seat across from her on a stool and slid the blue jell-o over to her.

"That Carter is always working?" he asked, pulling a fork and spoon out of a pocket.

"That's what _you _always say," she said, her hand meeting his halfway across the table to take the spoon he was offering. "I was thinking more along the lines of 'there's always room for jell-o.'"

"I know," he said with the smirk that was infuriating and endearing at the same time.

As much as she was enjoying this little interruption, she sensed an ulterior motive in her CO. And since the date she'd been dreading for nearly a year was now only a week away, she had a pretty good guess as to what he wanted to talk about. She wasn't about to be the one to bring it up though.

Halfway through his jell-o, he did it. "We just heard from Dad. A little while ago. He's unavailable till Friday. Then he wants to spend the week with you."

"Really?" she asked, more than a little surprised.

"Yeah. But Thursday…" He trailed off, looking at her carefully.

She nodded into her jell-o, chopping it to mush with the spoon. Thursday was the actual day. Her birthday. Daniel's birthday.

"It's up to you, Carter," Jack said quietly. "I'm happy to try to… but I understand if you don't want to do anything this year."

"Really?" she asked.

She had been wondering what he was going to want to do. After Daniel had… left, the Colonel had been the poster boy for full denial. Even when she had chased him down and practically begged him to talk about it. But that still didn't really tell her how he'd want to handle their birthday.

Would he want to pretend like it was a normal year, and have a party like always, or would he rather just pretend like it was a regular Thursday? It would have been nice to be able to do the latter, but she just wasn't capable of it. And she knew he knew that. But he was letting her decide.

"I'd really rather just… not do anything this year, if that's okay with you, sir."

"If that's what you want, Carter. But if that's the case, can I make a request?" he glanced at her uncomfortably.

"Of course, sir."

"Take Thursday off. Please. And don't come to the mountain at all."

"Sir?"

"After last year's party, everyone here knows you and Daniel have the same birthday and… I just know if it were me I wouldn't want people staring at me all day."

"Yeah, I'd… thought about that too," she admitted quietly. "All right. I'll take Thursday off."

"Good," he said with a smile he hoped wasn't too sad. "And I'll inform the galaxy they are not to have any sort of emergency that needs that brain of yours."

"Thanks," she said, laughing despite her sad mood.

How was it that he could always, _always _manage to make her laugh, no matter what? Stuck on Apophis's ship, blinded and locked up? In the middle of a briefing? Just been kidnapped? No problem, he could still make her laugh.

"Hey, you okay?" he asked.

She realized she'd been smiling sadly into her jell-o bowl for a couple of minutes and met his eyes with a genuinely grateful smile. "Yes, sir, I'm okay. Thanks for the jell-o."

"Anytime, Carter." He returned the smile and slid off the stool reluctantly. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go teach Jonas a thing or two about boxing."

Thursday morning, Sam gave up trying to get some sleep when it started to get light outside. She got up, fed her cat, and started a pot of coffee mechanically, making it extra-strong since sleep had eluded her completely the night before. "Happy Birthday to me," she muttered, petting Quarks absently as she waited by the coffee maker.

What on Earth was she going to do with herself all day? Colonel O'Neill had been right about it being a good idea to stay home, but it also left her with little distraction from thoughts of Daniel. She thought about him all the time anyway, but the past week had just been filled more and more with apprehension about today, the day that was finally here.

Maybe she could pull Cassie out of school for a day of shopping. The kid was more than smart enough to miss a day here and there. Truth was, Cassie was still in high school only because she actually _liked _it, something Sam had trouble understanding sometimes.

But if Janet found out Sam got Cassie out of school, they'd both be in trouble, and Sam wasn't likely to be fun company for anybody today anyway. Plus in her current mood Cassie would probably be able to convince her to do something really stupid, like go get matching point-of-origin tattoos or something.

She had just poured herself a cup of coffee when the doorbell rang. Looking down at the huge tee-shirt she had "borrowed" from her CO four years ago and never returned, she went to the door cautiously, looking through the peephole.

She could barely make out the top of a mop of messy brown hair. Her neighbour, Morgan. He was a very friendly child, always willing to mow the lawn for her or help Cassie take turns watching Quarks and Magnet, the golden retriever Sam had given Colonel O'Neill for his birthday nearly two years ago. She had got Magnet from him in the first place actually. Her mother was his beloved pet. Sam opened the door and smiled, hoping she didn't look as tired as she felt. "Hi, Morgan. What can I do for you?"

The ten year-old boy was already dressed in his school uniform, his tie carefully tightened, probably by his mother, a friendly woman named Rachel who had remarried about a year and a half ago. It occurred to Sam that this was the first time she'd ever seen him looking so smart, as the boy seemed to attract dirt like Daniel had attracted trouble. She sighed and tried to clear her head again.

Morgan held a paper bag in one hand and a big balloon hovered next to him, its string held securely in the hand that held the paper bag, which she now noticed had a Starbucks label on the side. He pushed his glasses up his nose with one finger, the movement making her gut clench as it reminded her once again of Daniel.

Morgan was grinning ear to ear and said proudly, "Good morning, Sam. I'm supposed to give you this stuff," as if he had been entrusted with something vitally important, along the lines of 'find the Holy Grail.'

Quarks, hearing Morgan's voice, tried to squeeze past her. Blocking him with her leg, Sam said, "Wow, thanks, Morgan. Do you want to come in for a minute?"

"I can't, the bus will be here soon." He handed her the bag and the balloon and knelt to scratch Quarks under the chin. "Are you home sick?"

"No, but I probably look it, huh," Sam commented. "I'm just taking a day off. Did Colonel O'Neill put you up to this?"

"Yeah, he said not to say until you did though."

"I see." Sam peeked into the bag and saw a large blueberry scone. Her favourite kind, with the big sugar granules on top. "You sure you don't want to come in? This is huge, there's more than enough for two…"

"No thanks. Colonel Jack gave me some cookies already."

"Cookies?"

"I only ate one already, I'm saving the other for lunch," he assured her.

Laughing, Sam smiled. "Well, thanks for helping him out."

He shrugged. "No big deal. He just said he was late for work already, but that kind of didn't make sense, I mean it took him longer to explain everything to me than to just come over himself… are you mad at him or something?"

"No," Sam said, laughing. "Definitely not. He just thinks he's funny."

"I think he's funny too," Morgan answered.

Sam wrinkled her nose and said, "Please don't tell him that, his ego is big enough already."

Morgan giggled and said, "Okay." The school bus turned the corner at the end of the street, so Morgan said, "I gotta go. Bye, Quarks." He got to his feet and hugged Sam quickly. "Bye Sam, have a good day off work," he said with another grin, hurrying down the pavement.

"Thanks, Morgan, have a good day at school," Sam called, watching him go back over to his own yard to fetch his book bag before the bus arrived.

Shaking her head to herself as she shut the door, she realized her CO had just brightened her mood considerably without even being present. She took her scone into the kitchen to have with her coffee, the balloon floating behind her like a disembodied stalker.

She tied the string to a knob on the cupboard so it wouldn't wander around her house all day and wondered how long it would stay inflated. The bright "Happy Birthday" decoration made her certain it was meant to be a child's balloon… then again she supposed most balloons were made for children.

She slid the scone out of the bag onto a plate and a folded note slid out with it. Unfolding it, she furrowed her brow as she read it. In his familiar, surprisingly tidy narrow writing, he had written, " 'Nobody can be uncheered with a balloon.' Don't forget, Cassie has finals next week, so I'd think twice about pulling her out of school if I were you, unless you want the good doctor to hunt you down." He had signed the note "The SGC Ultimate Boxing Champion."

"So I guess Teal'c wasn't competing," Sam said to her cat, shaking her head at the last part of the note. She pondered the first part of the note as she picked at her scone. It was clearly a quote, and it was familiar somehow, but she couldn't place it. She protected her scone from Quarks as she stared at the note, then decided it was going to bother her all day if she couldn't identify it.

She got up and put the remaining two-thirds of the scone away. Quarks looked at her as if he had been betrayed. She smiled at him and said, "Sorry, you wouldn't like it anyway. Come on." She scooped the cat up with one arm and took her coffee mug and the note in the other and went to the nearest computer, which was in her office.

Setting the coffee down and turning the computer on, she sat down with Quarks in her lap as she waited impatiently, cuddling the cat absently. Not used to all the attention in the middle of the day, Quarks purred happily and nuzzled her.

"Finally," Sam muttered as she accessed the Internet. She googled the phrase and was surprised when it popped up immediately, repeatedly. "Winnie-the-Pooh!" she exclaimed out loud. "Colonel Jack O'Neill of the SGC quoted Winnie-the-Pooh at me! And I have written proof!" Quarks looked at her as if she were mad and jumped out of her lap, streaking out of the room.

Daniel would hurt himself laughing if she could show him that note… sighing, Sam got up and headed back to the coffee pot. She could show it to Teal'c… but she might have to explain Winnie-the-Pooh first before he would think it was funny… same with Jonas. She sighed. Oh well, the Colonel's efforts had worked for a little while at least.


	2. Jogging and Remembering

A/N: Wow, I cannot tell you how touched I was by your responses to the last chapter, really. As far as the questions about names for the twins goes, I'll keep my lips sealed on that one, because Evie's mentioned working some of our conversations about names and the like into future chapters of her story 'Small Favours,' which apparently everyone in the universe is reading and loving! Thank you all for your congratulations, and thank you for your loyalty to this series. I'm truly touched.

I usually don't post a story until it is 'finished,' which means that it's written _somewhere, _but that means it's in pieces on three computers, notebooks, or sometimes just in my head. What I'm trying to say is that I thought this was 'finished,' but decided it could still be sad without ending on a sad note, so I've decided to add a funny chapter at the end, which means slightly reworking a few other chapters as well. Still, updates will probably be about every other day or so, and it looks like... six or seven decent-sized chapters.

This one is a bit of a tight-rope trick, trying to balance humour and sentiment, and have Jack and Sam be a bit mushy but still themselves... so please let me know if I begin to teeter too far in one direction or the other, keeping in mind that years 7, 8, and an epilogue of sorts are already basically mapped out.

Ch 2: Jogging and Remembering

Sam decided a good, long run would help clear her head. It always did. Which was why her muscles were already furious with her. She had been running at least twice as much as usual in the last week. Combined with the lack of sleep, she wasn't feeling so hot, but she started pulling on some running clothes anyway, pointedly ignoring the little voice in her head (which sounded a lot like one Dr. Janet Fraiser) telling her she couldn't keep this up much longer.

It was early winter, so she pulled a knit hat down low over her ears and applied a lot of Chap Stick. She did up the zip of her hoodie and double-knotted her trainers. Quarks seemed to be giving her an awfully accusatory look. "Oh hush," Sam muttered to him, hurrying out the door.

She jogged her familiar route to the jogging park, although since it was winter there weren't many people out and about. She passed two men younger than herself being half-dragged by three large Alsatians, and a friendly-looking older gentleman who smiled as she passed him. Rather than holding the end of a leash, he was carrying a minuscule white dog which bore more than a passing resemblance to a cotton ball.

Once she got to the park, she switched over to automatic, taking comfort in running the familiar paths while her thoughts wandered aimlessly, centred around Daniel, of course, but following no discernable pattern. She ran until she couldn't think anymore, and some primitive part of her brain shut her body down automatically when it realized she wasn't going to do it herself. She realized she was home, without any memory of even leaving the park.

Unzipping her jacket and taking off her hat, Sam went into the kitchen and drank a bottle of water methodically, mainly to get the annoying Janet-sounding voice that was chanting 'hydrate, hydrate' in the back of her head to shut up and leave her alone, then went through her house to the bathroom for a long, hot shower.

When she got out of the shower, her phone was ringing. Wrapping a towel around herself to catch some of the dripping water, she hurried for the phone. Maybe there was a nice base emergency they needed help with.

"Carter," she said into the phone.

"Why do you answer the phone like that at home?" her brother asked, laughing on the other end of the line.

"Mark?" Sam asked, surprised.

"'Course it's Mark, how many brothers do you have?"

Now… two. You and Teal'c, she thought to herself, taking the phone back into the bathroom so she'd stop getting the carpet wet.

"Sorry," she said absently into the phone, picking up the necklace Daniel had given her last year. The one that was meant to be from brother to sister.

"That's okay, I figured I'd be getting your machine anyway, I was going to have the kids sing to you."

"That's sweet," Sam said, and meant it.

"Happy birthday, S'mantha."

She cringed. She _hated _the way Mark said her full name; he never said it properly. He always said it really fast, skipping the first syllable. He called her Sam most of the time like everybody else so it didn't really matter, but still. It was equivalent to scraping nails on a blackboard in her opinion.

"Thanks, Mark."

"Well, the kids want to talk to you, so I better hand the phone over before they attack."

Sam smiled and waited patiently for her niece and nephew. They sang 'Happy Birthday' to her and then both started fighting over who got to talk to her first. Sam waited, holding the phone out away from her ear as Mark tried to sort out his kids. She took the opportunity to put Daniel's necklace on.

"Auntie? Auntie, are you there?"

"Sorry, sweetie, go ahead," she said, wedging the phone between her shoulder and ear and picking up her hair brush.

An hour later, she had been caught up on the lives of her niece and nephew. She spoke to Mark again briefly and said goodbye.

Sam went into her living room to get dressed but then decided she really needn't bother, so she threw on her fluffy blue robe and pulled on some warm socks. She went over to the closet, pulled out her photo album, and Daniel's as well, which had found its way to her house when they had been clearing things out of his lab for Jonas, and settled down with them. The pictures helped guide her thoughts somewhat, so that she could remember happy things about Daniel as well.

Loud, persistent, suspiciously youthful sounding knocking on her front door made her look up from the book in her lap sometime later. Wiping her eyes as she went to her front door, she wondered how long she had been sitting there. She hurt everywhere, from all the running and lack of sleep. She had a headache from crying now, too. And her nose was stuffy.

"Cassie, what are you doing here?" she demanded as she opened the door and saw her goddaughter standing there with a huge shopping bag.

"Just wanted to say 'Happy Birthday' and make sure you're okay. I called Mom, she said it was okay to come over. So did Jack…" Cassie said uncertainly.

"Of course it's okay, come in, I just… shouldn't you be in school?" Sam asked, stepping aside to let Cassie in, shutting the door behind her.

"Sam, it's four o'clock. God, you look terrible," Cassie said honestly, going into the living room and setting her shopping bag on the coffee table. She noticed the open photo album and said quietly, "Good, you've got them out."

She turned back to Sam and said, "Why are you in your robe in the middle of the afternoon?"

"I was… taking a shower after a run and Mark called, then I guess I got a little side-tracked…"

"I brought you some stuff."

"You didn't have to do that."

"It's your birthday - you have to get presents," Cassie said with a shrug. She slid the bag over to Sam and said, "There's other stuff in there too."

Sam pulled out a bunch of bath products from their favourite store, Lush. "We both thought you might need a good long soak. And shower or no, based on the way you look now…"

"Thanks," Sam said sarcastically, pulling out several envelopes of pictures. "What's…"

"They're mostly from last year's birthday party. I thought you might want to add those to both your books."

"Thanks, Cassie," Sam said quietly. "I really appreciate it."

"Good. I'll help you if you want."

"Sure, sounds good."

"Go get dressed first though."

"Cassie…"

"You'll feel a little bit better if you do, Sam. Even if it's just washing your face and putting on some sweats. Trust me."

"Who put you in charge?" Sam grumbled, allowing Cassie to herd her in the direction of her bedroom.

"Mom did. She wants me to report on your condition. So go get dressed and for God's sakes brush your hair. Then I won't have to lie to her. I'm going to go get a snack."

Sam rolled her eyes and muttered, "Bossy," as she went into her bedroom to get dressed.

Putting on her most comfortable, oldest pair of jeans was a small step up from sweatpants, but an important one in her mind. She pulled on a big, soft cream sweater and splashed cold water on her face, then went to inspect the damage Cassie was doing to her kitchen.

"What's with the balloon, Sam?" Cassie asked, pulling a bag of popcorn out of the microwave. "Hey, you look better."

"Thanks. Morgan brought the balloon over this morning," she explained.

"How does Morgan know when your birthday is?" Cassie asked with a frown.

"Colonel O'Neill sent him over with breakfast and the balloon."

"Awwwwwwwwww," Cassie said in a mushy sort of voice, followed closely by making a gagging noise and sticking her tongue out.

"Oh be quiet," Sam told her. "Or I won't show you the very funny note that came with it."

"I'll be quiet," Cassie promised immediately.

"That's better," Sam said, pulling the note out of a drawer and handing it to her.

Cassie read it and exclaimed, "Aw, you wanted to play hooky? You should have called…"

"I almost did. Blame the Colonel's very timely note."

"Oh, don't worry, I'll blame Jack. We could have been shopping all day, you know what the sales are like right now…"

"I wouldn't have been much fun today, Cass."

"I'm enough fun for both of us," Cassie said with an unconcerned shrug. "What's with this thing about the balloon though? It sounds familiar."

"I googled it. It's from Winnie-the-Pooh."

Cassie spent about five minutes laughing at that one. Sam waited patiently and handed her a soda when she was finished. "Thanks," Cassie said, gasping for breath. "So… let's go get started with all those pictures. I haven't even looked at them all - Teal'c gave Mom a bunch in addition to the ones from my camera."

An hour and a half later, Cassie said, "I'm going to go on home now, Sam. I'm finished with your book, I hope you like it."

"Thanks, Cassie. I want to finish Daniel's first, then I'll look at mine," Sam said absently, intent on what she was doing.

"Of course," Cassie said, gathering up her things and hugging Sam from her spot on the couch. "Say hi to Jack for me," Cassie added.

"Colonel O'Neill?" Sam asked distractedly, sorting through a small stack of pictures. "He's not coming over…"

"Right," Cassie said lightly. "Sam… for what it's worth, I'm sure wherever Daniel is today, he's thinking about you too."

"Thanks, Cassie," Sam said sincerely, hugging her once more.

Cassie nodded and showed herself out of the house.


	3. Pets and Carrots

A/N: I really appreciate all of your congratulations, and your enthusiasm for this story and series. I'm getting it all organized, tweaked, and posted just as fast as I can!

Quinndolyn: Thanks, I love Cassie too. She's so much fun to write, so I've ended up using her a lot more than I ever planned in this series. If you like Cassie, you'll probably really enjoy what I've (roughly) planned for BT8. As far as Evie's story goes, I'm not sure if she's going to have them have one or two. Or possibly more, she's crazy enough to do it, so who knows?

Ch 3: Pets and Carrots

Sam was just finishing up with Daniel's photo album when the doorbell rang. That was odd, she thought as she got up stiffly, most of the muscles in her body protesting loudly at the way she had been treating them lately. The only people who ever rang the bell were those delivering something... surely her CO hadn't sent her something really embarrassing, like a singing strip-o-gram... he might, under normal circumstances, but surely today he wouldn't dare...

The bell rang again. Jerking back to the present, Sam looked through the peephole and solved the mystery. It was her CO after all, but his arms were full of various bags, which explained why he'd only been able to spare a finger to ring the bell rather than his customary knock.

She opened the door and was promptly knocked to the ground by sixty-four pounds of overexcited Golden Retriever. "Maggie!" Sam objected, laughing and spluttering as the dog licked her face. Apparently Maggie liked the salty residue of tears.

Jack set his things down as quickly as possible so he could grab his dog's collar and pull her off Sam. She was usually a very well-behaved dog, but sometimes Magnet's excitement got the better of her, and it had been over two weeks since she had been over at Carter's house.

"Sorry," Jack apologized, hauling his 2IC to her feet. "She was going nuts in the truck once she saw which direction we were going."

"It's okay," Sam insisted, smoothing her clothes and tucking her hair back into place somewhat.

"Well... that wasn't exactly the greeting I had planned," he said quickly with a sheepish smile. "Hi," he added.

"Hi," Sam said, glancing at all the stuff he had brought in with him before turning her attention back to Maggie, who was still bounding around her, her long wagging tail thumping against Sam's knees every few seconds.

"I know, it looks like a home invasion, doesn't it," Jack said, shifting nervously on his feet as he saw her notice the various bags he'd brought in. "I would have called first but... well... I thought you might ask me to leave you alone and... I didn't want to do that to you on your birthday..." He paused, trying to gauge her reaction, and continued. "Besides, Maggie here is great at making people smile, aren't you?" he asked his dog, ruffling her hair.

"It's fine, sir. I'm glad you're here. Both of you," Sam said quietly.

Jack saw Quarks streaking into the room from behind Sam, then saw the minute his dog became aware of the cat's presence, and just managed to pull Sam out of the way by her elbows in time to keep her from being bowled over for a second time.

"Thanks," she said with a laugh as they watched the dog and cat immediately start play-wrestling each other around the living room. Maggie crashed into the coffee table, sending it scooting towards the sofa.

"Magnet!" Jack called, frustrated. This was not exactly the way he had planned the evening to start.

"It's okay, sir," Sam said, laughing. "They're not going to hurt anything. Still, maybe I'll let them run off some energy in the backyard for a little while."

"Is that safe for Quarks?"

"He won't go anywhere as long as Maggie's out there with him," she assured him, going through the kitchen to let them out the back. "Maggie, come on!"

The dog and cat both came when she called, running outside. Sam flipped on the light and shut the door, and turned around to find her CO setting three of the bags he had brought in with him on the kitchen table. "I figured you haven't eaten much today," he said.

"I had breakfast brought to me by a very cute little delivery boy," Sam answered with a smile, nodding at the balloon that was still tied to the cupboard. "Thank you."

"No idea what you're talking about," he replied with a grin.

"Yeah, I guess it must have been some other Colonel... with a strange affinity for Winnie-the-Pooh."

"You looked it up on the Internet, didn't you?" he asked.

"Of course."

"I had a feeling you would. And I also have a feeling that if I looked in your refrigerator I'd find most of that scone still sitting in there."

"Maybe," Sam admitted.

"Right. Lunch?"

"I... got busy."

"As I suspected. So, I wasn't sure what you'd be in the mood for, but I figured you can just eat the rest with Dad when he gets here. So Chinese, Boston Market, or bar-be-cue?" he asked, peering into the bags. He didn't point out that the Boston Market wasmeant to be 'comfort food,' and the other options in case she wanted to pretend today was just a regular day.

"Did you get mashed potatoes?" Sam asked.

"Yup. And those weird carrots," Jack added, leaving the Boston Market bag on the counter and taking the other bags to the fridge. He patted himself on the back as he slid the Starbucks bag to one side to make room for the rest of the food. There were thousands of things about his 2IC he figured he would never really get, but in lots of other ways, he knew her very well.

"The carrots aren't weird, sir..." Sam said, because that's what she always said.

"Vegetables aren't supposed to be that sweet," he insisted, grabbing two plates and pulling open the silverware drawer. It was a familiar debate.

"They have to do that so people like you will still eat your vegetables."

"That amount of brown sugar totally negates the purpose of eating a carrot."

"Teal'c likes them," Sam said with a shrug, as if that settled the matter.

Jack started pulling out the various containers and filling up their plates while Sam quickly started making some tea.

"Speaking of the big guy," Jack said as he moved all the food over to the counter so the table was clear for them to sit and eat. "He wanted me to tell you 'Happy Birthday,' and to explain that he would have liked to be here to celebrate with you, but felt that you would have a better day if he stayed with Jonas instead."

"Teal'c said all that?"

"Yeah, well, I'm... interpreting a little. We were talking earlier," Jack admitted, glancing at her nervously to see if she was mad they were worried about her or not. "And we just thought... I mean we weren't going to leave you alone on your birthday, even if you did tell us to go once we showed up, but we thought you would... prefer it if we just left Jonas out of this rather than trying to explain everything to him. And we didn't think it would be right to ditch him at the base without an explanation either, so Teal'c is just hanging out there with him tonight, like usual, so the king of hair gel won't think anything is up."

"I like Jonas," Sam said quietly, filling two glasses with ice. "Although you're right, he could do with a little less hair gel. But... you're right. This just isn't something I'm comfortable sharing with him. And if he were here, I would be worried about him feeling guilty, so I'd be trying to act all cheerful... thanks, sir. I'll thank Teal'c too when I see him. Make sure he knows how much I appreciate it."

"Teal'c has been really overprotective of you all of a sudden," Jack commented casually, because it was something they could talk about other than Daniel. "What's up with that?"

She stiffened slightly, busying herself with the iced tea so she could collect herself. "I don't know, I suppose he had to do something with all that time he used to spend making sure Daniel stayed in one piece."

"That's what Jonas is for. This is different," Jack insisted. "I don't know what, but it's... different. More... fathery than Teal'c's ever been. With any of us. I'm not talking about in dangerous situations, I'm talking about when we're just hanging around the base and stuff. He's like... always in your lab now."

"I don't know, you'd have to ask Teal'c about that, sir. I hadn't really noticed... maybe he misses R'yac." Sam handed him a glass of tea and sat down with her own, looking down at her plate. "There's no way I'm going to be able to eat all of this."

"Try," Jack said with a shrug, dipping his roll into his gravy and transferring half of it to his mouth at once.

To get the subject off of Teal'c, before the Colonel connected the dots and realized Teal'c's extra-attentiveness strangely coincided with his disappearance with Maybourne, Sam asked, "So, tell me about the SGC Ultimate Boxing Championships."

Jack grinned after he had swallowed his roll and started talking.

He pretended not to notice that Sam spent most of the meal pushing the food around on her plate, only eating a little bit, something he remembered noticing her doing shortly after they met. On that occasion, she had been worried about Ferretti, who at that point still hadn't regained consciousness after the disaster on Abydos.

She was such a pro at the food-pushing tactic that he might not have picked up on it at all if it hadn't always reminded him of Charlie, who had been a very picky eater and always done the exact same thing. He remembered many prolonged nights at the dinner table, sitting there stuck between Sara and Charlie in a silent battle of wills over a spoonful of peas or a few pieces of broccoli. He had no doubt Jacob Carter had spent many similar evenings.

Still, it was the most he had seen her eat at one time in several weeks, so he didn't call her on it this time, merely paused a few times during his more-than-slightly exaggerated version of the impromptu tournament they had arranged in the gym yesterday afternoon to look at her pointedly until she took a bite out of guilt. Hey, sometimes you had to play hard-ball.

When it became apparent she wasn't going to eat anymore, he started clearing everything away, waving off her offers of assistance by saying it was her birthday. So while he cleaned up and put all the food away, Sam let the cat and dog in to give them their dinner.

Shortly after Magnet's arrival, when it had become apparent that she had developed a strangely intense bond to Quarks, Cassie had decided that if she was going to have to watch everyone's pets, they could all just stay at Sam's. It had quickly become too tiresome to try to remember to bring all the stuff Maggie needed for an extended stay at 'Hotel Carter,' so Sam now had an entire cupboard devoted to Maggie and Quarks. She pulled out Maggie's bowls, filled one with water, set them in their usual spot, and then measured the proper amount of dog food and poured it into the other bowl, picking up Quarks before he could inspect the contents for himself. He had once choked on a large kernel of dog food and it had been quite unpleasant.

She set her cat on the counter and started petting him to keep him patient while she started a can of cat food opening with the electric can opener.

"Carter, gross!" Jack objected as the can opened and the smell traveled around the room.

Sam ignored him, dumping the can into Quarks's bowl and leaving him to it while she went to wash her hands.

"Okay, let's go into the living room so I can give you your present while they finish eating."

Sam shrugged and followed him into the living room. She didn't really see why he was so bothered by the smell of her cat food - it smelt a lot better than some of the MREs she had seen him eat - especially the one labeled 'Ham'n Eggs.'

"I know you don't want a party, but is this okay?" Jack asked cautiously.

She shrugged. "I wasn't expecting you to come over, if that's what you mean... but I wasn't really surprised either."

"I just don't really know where the right balance is here, Carter," Jack admitted, looking suddenly self-conscious, which was unsettling to see on him.

"I don't either, sir," she said quietly, looking down at her hands.

"Okay, how about... if you don't want to go along with any of this mini, tiny, not even really there celebration... just speak up, okay?"

"Okay," she agreed, sitting down on the couch.

"Wait there, part of your present is still in the truck, I couldn't carry it..." Jack said suddenly, grabbing his keys and hurrying outside. Sam looked at the various gifts already on the table, wondering what on earth he had done this time. One was a gift bag, one looked like a shirt box, and one was a large box roughly the size of a naquada generator, although she was fairly certain that wasn't what it was.

He came back in holding something behind his back, edged around to the back of the couch, and set it down, warning, "No peeking back there, I couldn't wrap that one."

"That sounds like something that should concern me," Sam said lightly.

Jack gave her a 'who, me?' look and said, "Okay, this one first." He handed her the shirt box.

She unwrapped it, more than a little bit concerned. The last time her CO had given her clothes had been last year's birthday party, when he had picked out a dress from a Cassie-pre-approved selection. It was a beautiful dress, but it had caused many interesting problems. The only other time he had given her clothes had been the year he had thrown them a slumber party, and given Daniel and her matching PJs.

Swallowing hard as she pictured Daniel dancing around in his star and moon jammies with his top hat on, she froze. Jack waited patiently, sitting down on the edge of the coffee table so that he faced her and their knees almost touched.

"Carter?" he finally asked, touching her hand briefly. She looked up at him, unfocused. "We don't have to do this."

"I'm okay," she said quietly, her eyes finally focusing on him as she flashed a small smile. He nodded and watched her finish unwrapping the gift. "After last year I'm almost scared to open this," she said lightly, her smile getting a little bit bigger as she caught his eye.

"Just open it!"

"This better not be something I could get arrested for wearing out in public," she joked, trying to lighten the mood as she slid her nails under the side of the box.

"Carter," he half-growled, his fingers itching to rip the lid off the box himself.

She opened it and pulled out the item inside, holding it up uncertainly. He laughed at the expression on her face. Whatever she was expecting, it clearly wasn't a fishing vest. He wasn't even certain if she knew it _was _a fishing vest, but he had been expecting that. He had gotten the most ridiculous one he could find. The zipping, khaki thing had so many pockets that some of the pockets even had their own pockets.

He remembered her making pretty much the same face when she had opened Teal'c's gift years ago. Not knowing Jack was giving her a kitten, she had stared into Teal'c's box of cat toys with the same look of polite confusion she had now.

"Here, do this one next," Jack said with a laugh, handing her the gift bag. She pulled out a fishing hat, again the most ridiculous one he had been able to find. It even had a decorative fly hook on it. She rolled her eyes and he figured she got the joke now.

"Let's see then, put it on," he said, taking the hat from her and plopping it on her head. He adjusted it critically and smiled. "Perfect. There's something else in that bag too."

Eyeing him as though she hadn't quite figured out how to respond to this yet, she pulled out a book, reading the title aloud, "Freshwater fish of Minnesota."

"I know how you like to do your research," he said with a shrug, handing her the large box that was left, which was surprisingly light, she noticed as he set it on her lap. She unwrapped it. "Every fisherman... fisherwoman... every person who goes fishing should have their own tackle box," he insisted. She opened it, looking at all the strange lures and plastic worms and things that he had already put in there.

"You'll notice there's room for you to sneak a book in there as well, provided it's something small and not related to theoretical astrophysics," he pointed out.

Sam held up several packages of stickers that were inside the tackle box, raising a questioning eyebrow.

"Ah, yeah, those. Well, see, Cassie thought it would be funny to decorate your tackle box, make it look all cute and pretty and... girly. But I thought you might hurt me if we did that, so we left it up to you," he explained. She shook her head, laughing slightly. Jack ducked behind the couch quickly and brought out the last part of the gift, a fishing rod and reel with a bow tied around it.

He handed it to her and said, "There. Now you have all the equipment, and you are out of excuses for reasons not to come fishing with me!"

"Thank you, sir," she said, shifting the items still in her lap aside so she could lean over and give him a quick hug.

"Whenever you're ready, of course" he added, his tone getting serious while his expression remained the same.

"Thank you," she repeated. He nodded and cleared away all the wrapping paper while she moved all the gifts over to the chair nobody ever used for sitting. "Maggie's scratching the back door, I'm going to let her out," she called.

Jack watched her go and looked around the room a bit nervously. Things seemed to be going just fine so far, but he really had no idea what he was doing here, and was more than a little worried about screwing up.


	4. Drunk and Drunker

A/N: Thanks everyone! So many happy reviews. I hope this chapter doesn't disappoint - I'm still trying to mix the funny/sad, which is not the easiest thing in the world to do. I suppose I might need to give a warning: Drunk Sam ahead, so if you object to that, you might want to bail.

Krazyalien: Personally, I have a Pomeranian and a German Shorthair Pointer, but my twin brother (Jack) has two Goldens, and our brother Nathan has one as well, so I have plenty of experience with their abundant energy! Also, in case anyone was wondering, Quarks is a real kitten that my niece got last Christmas. He is very cute and quite mad on his own, evenwithout catnip.

I have to say, I think I got the funniest review ever on the last chapter: to the person who is '_licking this fic' _as much as the others... you nearly killed me laughing! I know it's just a typo but I got this mental image of somebody licking a computer monitor, going 'Mmm, just as good as the last one' and... yeah. I nearly lost it!

Ch 4: Drunk and Drunker

Jack waited for Sam and Maggie to come back inside, figuring she wanted to be alone to collect her thoughts for a bit. He had tried to come prepared for a variety of scenarios - but he still didn't know what he was doing, he just didn't want Sam to be alone thinking about Daniel all night. He had noticed the photo albums were out on the coffee table earlier but hadn't commented on them. Now, he sat down on the couch and started thumbing through Sam's album while he waited for her.

"Cassie did that one," Sam explained quietly, sitting down next to him.

"Today?" Jack asked, flipping ahead to the spot where he'd left off the year before and new pictures he hadn't seen began. He slid the book over so that it rested half in his lap, half in hers so they could both see it.

"Yeah. I added to Daniel's and she added to mine. I haven't even looked at this one yet."

"Well, I'm sure she didn't do as good of a job as I did, but let's see..." Jack said lightly.

They looked through the book quietly, occasionally laughing at a candid picture or commenting on what had been happening at the time it had been taken.

"Can I look at Daniel's?" Jack asked when Sam finally set hers aside on an end table.

"Of course," Sam said, tucking her feet underneath her while he reached for the large album with one hand. An envelope slid out of it, from between the last pages.

"What's this?" Jack mumbled, picking it up. Sam gasped and froze as Jack pulled out the gift she had given Daniel last year: passes to Disney World. They never got the chance to use them.

Based on her reaction, Jack figured out roughly what was going on and set the book down quickly. "I'm sorry, Carter..."

Seeing those passes, remembering the night she had given them to him, suddenly made something inside of her snap. She felt a sharp stabbing pain in her heart and couldn't breathe. Then she burst into tears she instantly knew wouldn't be stopping any time soon and launched herself into Jack's arms, not caring at the moment that he was her CO and this was highly unprofessional behaviour for a Major in the USAF.

Jack gathered her to him, surprised by her sudden outburst but feeling like it had probably been a long time coming. He had no idea what to say or do, so he just sat there, rocking slightly, one hand curled around her neck, the other rubbing her back in big, slow circles. His neck and the collar of his shirt was getting soaked with hot tears, and he soon became worried that she was going to make herself hyperventilate.

"Breathe in," he instructed, repeating it over and over until she was no longer hysterical. She was still crying hard, but she was no longer gasping and shuddering.

After a long, long time, Sam finally started talking in between sobs. Jack wasn't sure if she knew she was speaking out loud or not, because it sounded like she was talking to herself, saying things like, "Loved him so much," and "he had no idea."

Jack waited until she had completely cried herself out, which took so long he wondered when the last time she had really cried was. He felt like an ass, because that was something he should have known, and would have known if he hadn't been distancing himself from all things Daniel-related so much.

When she was still and quiet, still crying a little bit, he finally started talking. "Daniel knew how you felt about him, Carter." He was careful not to call her 'Sam,' just now. That was Daniel's thing. "He knew because he felt the same way. It doesn't matter if you never say it. You were closer than most brothers and sisters. And all brothers know their little sisters love them. It's just a fact, like gravity."

"Why won't he come back?" Sam asked, sounding tiny and afraid, two words he would never have thought to put in the same sentence with Sam Carter. "Orlin retook human form, if Daniel's really ascended, why won't he... _de-scend?_"

"You miss him so much right now you're not thinking like you, Carter," Jack said quietly. "Daniel won't do that because he's not selfish. Coming back to us would be selfish. He's doing what he's supposed to be doing right now, I guess."

He looked down at the top of her messy hair, debating for the millionth time whether or not he should tell her Daniel had shown up when he had been captured by Ba'al. It would probably just make her upset that Daniel hadn't visited her too, if she even believed him, so he said nothing.

"What do you want to do now, Carter? Want me to leave you alone?"

"No!" she said quickly, clinging to him a bit tighter than before. Despite the horrible circumstances, he couldn't help but be a little bit pleased at that.

"Want some birthday cake?" he tried.

"No."

"Okay." He paused for a minute, took a deep breath, and said, "Want to get really drunk and trade stories about Daniel?"

"God, yes!"

He laughed and said, "Good thing I came prepared for anything." Sam watched, surprised, as he went over to one of the bags he hadn't touched yet. He pulled out a large bag of lemons, a huge, dangerous looking bottle of tequila, and said, "I figured you have salt."

Eyes slightly widened, she nodded and said, "Yeah, in the cupboard next to the fridge."

"Okay then, I'll be right back."

She watched him go and felt slightly alarmed for the first time that night. Normally, a night alone with Jack O'Neill would have her completely on edge. Well, then again, normally there _weren't _nights alone with Jack O'Neill, but that was beside the point. He was clearly there because she needed a friend right now, despite the fact that it was also the one day a year that always ended up with the two of them in an increasingly passionate lip-lock.

Her cheeks flushed automatically as she remembered last year's encounter on the couch. She had been so consumed by thoughts of Daniel as she dreaded her birthday approaching this year that this was literally the first time she had even thought about what would happen this year between herself and Jack.

Then she calmed down as she realized he knew all of that too. They hadn't talked about it, but she knew he knew. She knew that meant he also probably wasn't going to kiss her tonight, at all. Tonight was about Daniel, and despite how Jack and Daniel had constantly bickered, there were some pretty deep feelings between the two of them as well, and Sam figured Jack would consider it a bit disrespectful to Daniel to use tonight as an excuse to stick his tongue down her throat.

"What are you thinking about?" Jack asked, making Sam jump a little bit and blush.

"Nothing. Wondering where my shot glasses are," she lied.

He raised both eyebrows but didn't comment. "I brought two."

"You _did _come prepared."

"Yeah, well... I'm not sure this is what Daniel would want you to do today, but I know he wouldn't want us to end the tradition entirely because he's not here," he said with a shrug, setting a big bowl of lemon wedges in the middle of the coffee table, pulling the salt shaker out of his pocket, and setting two shot glasses next to it.

"You sure this is what you want to do?" he asked.

"I'm sure," she said quickly, moving around to the other side of the coffee table and sitting on the floor, so Jack could have the couch, because his knees would hurt on the floor.

She knew that because she hadn't slept or eaten much in the past week, she was about to get really drunk, really fast. And probably be really sick after that. And all of a sudden, that was exactly what she wanted: to stop being expected to deal with everything perfectly.

Jack sat down on the edge of the couch and opened the bottle of tequila, carefully pouring two shots. "To Daniel?"

Sam nodded and picked her shot up without bothering with the salt, so he shrugged and did the same, clinking his shot against hers and swallowing it. She made the funniest face he had ever seen in his life, like she had just swallowed a bug. He handed her a lemon and popped one in his mouth, sucking on it quickly.

The lemon just made her face get even funnier. Her cheeks were bright red and her eyes were watering. He laughed and said, "Sorry, I thought you liked tequila."

"Why'd you think that?"

"You said something once about margarita parties with the doc..."

"That tasted nothing like a margarita!"

"Sorry... you handle alcohol like you've trained for it, I guess I assumed you'd had straight tequila..."

"I stuck mostly to vodka in college," she explained.

"Another piece of the Carter mystery unfolds," he said. "We don't have to do this if you don't like it..."

"No, I want to!" she insisted, getting up on her knees. "Pour another. I'll know what to expect this time."

He decided not to point out that she had essentially just given him an order. He poured the shots and reached across the table to grab her hand, turning her arm over and pushing the sleeve of her sweater up to her elbow.

He picked up the salt and said, "Lick your wrist."

"I'm glad Jonas isn't here," she said suddenly, feeling rather silly as she licked her wrist and he sprinkled salt on it, then did the same to himself.

"Why?" he asked, licking off the salt and taking his shot. She copied him and made a slightly less-exaggerated face this time, but it still made him laugh.

"Well, as far as I know he's never had a drink before and you know how excited he gets about trying new things. Plus he still thinks I'm perfect," she added absently, setting her lemon wedge down neatly next to the other one she had already used.

"Er... okay. Do you want to tell the first thing about Daniel, or should I?"

"You go first."

"Okay. Well, I know you read all the reports from the first trip to Abydos, but I'll tell you what it was like seeing him meet Sha're..."

Sam looked so eager to hear the story, like a little kid, that Jack laughed. He decided to make all of his stories as long as he possibly could, to stretch out the time between shots.

Sam, it turned out as the evening progressed, had the opposite plan in mind. Her 'stories' quickly started making less and less sense and getting shorter and shorter as she got more and more drunk. Jack was more than a little concerned; he had been drunk with Carter plenty of times, and she always kept up with him better than anybody else, and she was one of the most in-control drunk people he had ever met, when she wanted to be.

Apparently she didn't want to be tonight. Which Jack certainly understood. He had done the same thing for a lot longer than one night, because of Charlie. If this was how Sam wanted to get through a painful day, he was just glad he was there to make sure she was okay.

Plus, he had to admit, it was kind of funny, because he could ask her _anything _tonight, and she was answering him.

"Sam, your turn to tell a Daniel story," he reminded her.

"Right. Okay... this one... this one is a secret," she whispered loudly. "I wasn't s'posed to tell you about it but Daniel's just going to have to show up and stop me if he wants."

"Uh..."

"No, it's not a bad secret, it's a funny secret. He was afraid you'd hurt him..."

"Start at the beginning, Carter."

"Right. Okay. You know when we first became a team and Daniel was kinda... geeky?"

"Kinda?" he repeated incredulously. "Yeah, go ahead."

"Well he wanted to get tougher and all, so I would help him work out and take him to the shooting range and all that..."

"I know, he told me how much he appreciated all that."

"Did he tell you 'bout little bunny foo foo?" Sam asked.

"No... who's little bunny foo foo?"

"You are!" Sam informed him, laughing hysterically.

"What? How do you figure that one, Carter?"

"Because... see it was this thing... he did this impression of you, when you box. He said you like hop around, like this..." She got to her feet unsteadily and tried to do an imitation of Daniel's imitation of Jack boxing.

"Carter, be careful, you're gonna fall," Jack warned.

"No, I'm not. And so he would make up funny words to the song and hop around doing an impression of you boxing, like, 'Little bunny foo foo hoppin round the gate room pickin on the scientists and boppin em on the head'... it was funnier when he did it," she said, stopping suddenly and looking very pouty.

Jack laughed and said, "Uh... good story, Carter. Come sit down now, okay? I don't want you to hurt yourself."

"Why?" she asked, maneuvering around the coffee table unsteadily and flopping down next to him on the couch.

"Because if I have to take you in to the doc like this she'll kill me," he explained patiently.

"Nah, she won't kill you," Sam insisted. "She likes you way too much. She might give you some extra shots though, just for fun."

"Right... hey, Carter? Why do you keep doing that thing with your shoulders?"

"What thing?"

"That."

"Oh. They hurt."

"Why?"

"I hurt all over."

"Why?" he asked, alarmed.

She shrugged. "I don't sleep anymore so I run."

He tried to work out if there was any logic in that statement but finally gave up.

"Let's have our cake now!" Sam exclaimed, apparently wanting to change the subject.

"Er... okay. Want to have some dinner first though?"

"We already ate dinner," she reminded him.

"Damn, I thought you might have forgotten. Well... want some leftovers first? It'll make you feel better."

"I feel fine," she insisted. "Let's have cake."

"Okay, guess it's better than nothing," Jack mumbled, getting up. He really felt the alcohol in his system when he stood up, but he was still okay, whereas Sam was wasted. She was going to feel like hell tomorrow.

"Hey, Carter?"

"Yeah?"

"Stay here on the couch while I get everything ready, okay? I'll bring it to you in a few minutes."

"Okay," she agreed, giving him a huge grin.

Shaking his head slightly, Jack grabbed the bag from the bakery and called Maggie to him on his way to the kitchen. She and Quarks, who had probably been off having a good laugh about the crazy humans in the living room, sauntered into the kitchen.

Jack had got a small, round cake this year, the same flavour as always, but it was decorated plainly. He didn't know if he should have both their names on it or just Sam's, so he had just left it blank. He put a cone-shaped party hat on his head, then put one on Maggie, then put the tiny one he got at the pet store (yes, he had gone shopping specifically for that) on Quarks. "Okay, guys, follow me," he said, sticking one sparkler in the middle of the cake and lighting it.

Maggie, of course, smelt the food, so she followed him. Quarks followed her. Jack took the cake into the living room. Sam looked at all their hats and laughed. Jack set the cake down on the table, pushing aside the empty bottle of tequila, and asked, "Do you want your crown thingy this year?"

He knew it was called a tiara, but he just refused to say the word tiara. She nodded, so he put it on her head for her, not trusting her to do it herself without poking her own eye out. He dumped Quarks in her lap. She was looking down at Quarks's hat. "Where'd you find one this small?"

"Pet stores have everything these days," Jack informed her. "Okay, now, no mocking my singing since I'm the only one here this year... Maggie, feel free to join in..." He sang 'Happy Birthday' while keeping a hold of Maggie's collar to keep her away from the cake, knowing chocolate was poisonous for dogs.

Quarks escaped while Sam leaned forward to blow out the sparkler. Maggie pawed her own hat off then went to help Quarks with his, and they started batting the hats around on the floor, playing with them.

Sam watched them playing and said, "Quarks is the best present ever. Thank you, sir."

He chuckled as he cut up the cake and said, "Well, that was four years ago, but you're welcome. I'm kind of fond of Maggie too, you know."

"Yeah, I know," she agreed, taking the plate of cake he handed her. "Does cake go with tequila?"

"We're about to find out," Jack said with a shrug, taking a big bite of cake.

Sam did the same, and declared enthusiastically, "Yup. It goes."


	5. Laundry and Toothbrushes

A/N: Originally, this was the end of this story, but it was a bit too sad and sentimental, so I'm finishing up a funny ending that's actually turned itself into two more chapters.

Ch 5: Laundry and Toothbrushes

Birthday cake eaten and safely put away so that Maggie could not get her paws on it, Jack rejoined his 2IC in the living room. He was more than a little worried about her. Of course, he had been worried about her all week, but that was emotionally. Now he was worried about her physical well-being.

Well, it was actually a pretty good trade-off. Carter being completely drunk off her ass was a lot easier to fix than the hole Daniel had left in her heart. He knew from personal experience those things never really got fixed. They got easier to deal with, sure. When other people helped replace bits and pieces of what the missing person left behind. Carter, Daniel, and Teal'c had all helped with Charlie, without even knowing it, Carter most of all.

He wasn't really sure when or how specifically it had happened, but shortly after the formation of SG1 he had started to remember things about Charlie other than his death. Tonight, even, just to take one example, he'd remembered fondly the way Charlie had pushed his food around his plate to stall bedtime or if he didn't like it. Somewhere along the way he had started to find glimmers of Charlie in other people, other things, and gradually had opened up enough to remember more than he'd ever allowed himself before.

But it had taken him years to get to that point, and Carter's grief was still pretty fresh. Of course, he felt the loss of Daniel just as much as Carter did. But it was a different loss, just like the way he and Sara had each experienced a different loss in the death of the child they shared.

He didn't know what to do about Daniel. He recognized that on some level, Carter was probably even angry at their friend for leaving and not coming back, whether she was conscious of it or not. But being aware of that didn't mean he knew what he should do or say. He was so scared of saying something terribly wrong that he went the exact opposite direction and chose not to say anything.

He'd make her as comfortable as possible tonight and hope she felt better in the morning, despite the massive hangover she was likely to have.

"Hey, Carter?" he asked, taking two bottles of water with him into the living room. He handed her one and sat down next to her on the couch. She scooted closer as soon as he sat down, settling into the cushion with their sides resting lightly together. Apparently she just wanted to be closer to him.

He smiled around the water bottle he held to his lips, remembering how cuddly Daniel always got when he was drunk. Sam wasn't like that, but she had always tolerated it from Daniel. Come to think of it, he remembered Daniel and Sam had always been very comfortable touching each other. Even on those first few missions, they'd be sat right next to each other on a log around the campfire, trading stories and joking like they'd known each other forever, oblivious to the things most normal people cared about, like personal space. At first he had assumed it was a science geek thing, but had soon realized it was just a Sam and Daniel thing.

"What? You said hey," Carter reminded him, nudging his shoulder.

"Oh, right. Drink your water."

"Why?"

"You'll thank me tomorrow."

She rolled her eyes and took a small, slightly defiant sip. He shook his head, smiling slightly. After tonight, he would have _so _much to blackmail her with. Not that he would, considering the context. Still.

Sam nudged at his arm with her shoulder, burrowing into his side until he got the hint and wrapped his arm around her. He was slightly alarmed at first that he was about to find himself in the middle of some weirdly exciting but disturbing 'Carter's drunk and horny' situation, which would create about a million new problems neither of them needed at the moment, but after he put his arm around her she snuggled into his side and went still, resting her head on his shoulder.

He wondered if she missed the casual, comforting contact she and Daniel had shared, then felt like an ass. Of course she did, even if it was only on a subconscious level. He should have thought of that sooner and made an effort to sit closer to her more, even though it was one of those love it/hate it things that made him think lots of thoughts about his 2IC he shouldn't, but did anyway.

Jack shook his head suddenly as he realized that while it may have taken him a while to notice that particular void left by Daniel, Teal'c had obviously picked up on it some time ago, and was doing his part to quietly fill it. Not completely, of course. Teal'c was much too clever for that.

Sam would hate it if she thought they were trying to mother-hen her or something, and for Teal'c to suddenly go all touchy-feely would send up red flags all over the place. Sam would be onto him in a second.

But in a subtle, more Teal'cy way (_yes, _it was a word - he had established that with Daniel three years ago), he had still managed to do his part, standing a fraction of an inch closer to her, perhaps. Spending more time in her lab. A supportive hand on her shoulder or arm here and there.

Squeezing her shoulder gently, Jack noticed that her sweater was just as soft as it looked. "Carter, drink your water."

"It tastes funny."

"That's probably the salt and lemons and half bottle of tequila you used as a chaser," Jack pointed out.

"I'm too full, it'll make my tummy feel like a goldfish bowl."

Jack didn't know which part of that was funniest: the simile itself, or the fact that the smartest person he knew had just used the word 'tummy' in all seriousness. Oh yeah. Maybe he would have to bring up one or two little things from tonight. Eventually.

"Drink some of it anyway. It'll help you feel better."

"I feel fine. It's kind of hot in here though. But I feel fine," she insisted.

"Hey, Carter?"

"Yessir?"

"What did you mean earlier when you said you hurt everywhere?"

She shrugged and said, "I'm just really sore."

"From running?"

"I guess."

"Okay, I'll make you a deal," he said suddenly.

"What?"

"Drink all of that water, then I'll give you a massage."

She smiled brightly and said, "Deal."

Twenty minutes later, Jack O'Neill was feeling like the biggest dumbass on the planet. He had offered the massage with strictly unselfish intentions to help her relax so she could get some sleep, because she obviously hadn't slept well in at least a week.

Now he was realizing he had either severely overestimated the control he had over his own feelings for his 2IC, or had severely underestimated how hot he found said 2IC. He refused to factor the half-bottle of tequila in each of them into the equation.

And all he'd done so far was rub her feet and her legs up to her knees, stopping when her jeans refused to be pushed up any higher.

It wasn't so much the touching that was causing a problem. Well, that was part of it, but he could handle the touching by itself. It was the fact that she was just staring at him, calm, happily drowsy, and completely unguarded.

"Do you want to turn on the TV?" he asked for the third time, hoping he could shift the focus of that clear blue gaze elsewhere.

"No."

"Okay. Well, ah, I'm done here, if you want to turn around." Hey, it was physically impossible for her to stare at his face while he rubbed her back, right?

He had assumed she would sit up and shift on the couch so that her back was to him. He wasn't expecting her to pull her sweater over her head, toss it in the general vicinity of the chair with all of her new fishing gear, and roll over onto her stomach on the couch.

The whole process had gone very quickly, and he'd really only got a glimpse of her. It wasn't like he'd never seen Carter in her bra before either, but generally those were sports bras, and Teal'c and Daniel were there too, in the locker room. Or her t-shirt had been cut off of her in a medical emergency, in which case the last thing on his mind was getting a glimpse of her underwear, or more specifically, he supposed, what was _under _the underwear.

The whole team had taken Cassie to the lake a couple of times too, so he'd seen her in a swimsuit, but... okay, he quickly decided his sick mind was heading in the wrong direction if he was hoping to continue his 'platonic and professional' massage. And it had really only been a glimpse anyway. No big deal.

He stared at her bare back, pale against the light blue straps of her bra, and sighed. Mumbling under his breath, he shifted so that he was perched beside her hip on the edge of the couch and lightly touched her lower back.

"What'd you say?" Carter asked him, sounding very sleepy already.

"I said, 'The Air Force is gonna owe me a bunch of new medals for this,'" he said.

"Oh."

Ten minutes later, Sam said, "The Air Force doesn't give medals for massages!" as thought it was a startling revelation.

Chuckling, Jack said, "Not yet anyway. And no more thinking. That's an order."

Since she didn't even bother to reply with her customary, 'Yes, sir,' he figured the getting-Carter-to-relax part of this stupid plan was working nicely, even if the rest of it had blown up in his face.

By the time he finished, he realized she was sound asleep. Well, okay, that was a bit more relaxed than he had wanted her to get, as he had hoped to get some more water and maybe some good food into her before she went to sleep, but it would do. He got up, half-reluctant to get away from her, half-regretting it, and covered her lightly with a blanket.

It had been a long time since he had seen his dog, so he quickly located her in Sam's bedroom, putting his hands on his hips and frowning at what he saw. Quarks and Maggie apparently shared the bad habit of taking great pleasure in playing with laundry. A basket was upturned near Carter's closet and socks, underwear, and bras were strewn all over the room. Glancing back into the dark hallway he had just walked through, Jack could vaguely make out a few shapes on the ground that indicated the laundry party had not been confined to the bedroom.

He sighed and started gathering it up, refusing to look at the individual bras and panties he was scooping up, and put them all back in the basket quickly. If it had been sorted at some point, she'd just have to do it again herself.

"Come on, Mags, let's go out one more time before bed," Jack said to his dog. She followed eagerly, she had to GO, it was about TIME! Jack flipped on the light outside and watched from the doorway as his dog did her thing in Sam's backyard, then he went around locking everything up after she came back inside.

The living room was a mess, he knew, but he was kind of, not that he'd admit it to anyone, drunk himself, and tired, and the idea of sleep was really appealing to him as well. So he'd just sort out Carter and then they could both sleep.

He sat down next to her and rubbed her shoulder through the blanket he had covered her with. "Carter, wake up." No response. He tickled her behind the ear and she squirmed, laughing a bit, then frowned and tried to snuggle further into the couch, clearly unwilling to wake up.

"Sorry, I know, you were sleeping. But you're not gonna be happy if you wake up like that tomorrow. Trust me."

He pulled the blanket off of her and got to his feet, trying to pull her to hers as well. She refused, making her body as limp as possible. It reminded him of Charlie's tactic when he absolutely did NOT want to go somewhere. With Charlie it had always been the dentist, but Jack supposed all kids figured out the wet-noodle strategy eventually.

With Carter, he had only himself to blame for effectively turning her into said wet-noodle in the first place, but he knew if she went to sleep after all that drinking, without brushing her teeth or changing, she'd feel really gross in the morning.

"Come on, Carter, all you have to do is stand in a hot shower for a few minutes, then you can get in your nice warm bed and sleep till noon tomorrow," he encouraged, pulling her arms.

"I want to sleep here," she mumbled.

"Okay, Carter, I'll give you one more chance to get up by yourself or I'm going to throw you over my shoulder and carry you, and trust me, _that _is one story I won't be able to keep to myself, Major!" he said cheerfully.

"You're _bossy,_" she grumbled as she allowed him to haul her to her feet this time.

"Yeah, well, it goes with the territory of actually _being _your boss," he pointed out. He repeated that mentally when she leaned into him heavily for support as he tried to get her to walk, his arms going around her automatically out of necessity. Just because she had apparently forgotten she wasn't wearing a shirt didn't mean he had.

They got to the bathroom, Jack noticing that Quarks and Magnet were watching them like they were the stupidest people on the planet, and Sam leaned back into the counter for support while Jack started the shower.

"Okay. Sam, listen to me. Do not fall in the shower, okay? Be really careful in there. I'm going to be out there, so I'll hear if something happens, and if you don't turn off the water yourself in ten minutes and tell me you're okay, I'm coming in. Got it?"

"Yup. Got it," she said, nodding enthusiastically.

"Okay, so, you need a towel..." Jack got one out of the cabinet and quickly placed it on the closed toilet seat, hurrying out of the bathroom because she was already removing her pants. He shut the door behind him most of the way, but left it open a few inches so he could hear if she fell or anything.

Once he heard that she was in the shower, he hurried into the kitchen to get two more bottles of water, setting them on her nightstand. Maggie and Quarks were both on the bed already, curled up together. Quarks regarded him with mild curiosity, but Maggie was already sleeping.

Jack's attention went back to the bathroom when he heard the unmistakable sounds of vomiting. Once they stopped, he called, "You okay, Sam?"

"Yes sir!" she called back.

"You sure? Want me to come in?"

"No! I'm fine, the shower helped wake me up, I'll be out in a few minutes."

"Okay, keep me posted!" he called back, sighing with relief. He'd already dealt with drunk and cuddly Carter, as well as half-naked sleepy Carter. He really didn't want to have to deal with a wet naked Carter as well.

Ten minutes later, he heard the water go off. He waited impatiently and finally called, "Carter?"

"Yeah, you can come in."

He stepped into the steamy bathroom cautiously. She was sitting on the closed toilet lid, still slightly damp, wrapped up in a towel. She looked like she felt miserable, but the bathroom looked, and smelt, clean.

"I threw up in the shower," she admitted, looking down at the floor. "A lot."

"That's less for me to clean up then," he said casually with a shrug.

"Sir, I..."

"Don't go getting all embarrassed and shy on me now, Carter," he ordered, going over to the sink to fix a toothbrush for her. "We can talk about that tomorrow if you want. I know you feel lousy now, but throwing up now probably means you won't feel so bad tomorrow."

She nodded and said, "In college, this always happened. If I threw up that night I wouldn't get a hangover."

"Lucky you," Jack offered, handing her the toothbrush.

"Yeah, my roommates were always jealous," Sam said, getting up to brush her teeth.

"You have an extra one of those in here?" Jack asked, pulling open the nearest drawer. Sure enough there was one in there. He pulled it out, opened it, and brushed his own teeth.

"I am SO drunk," Sam stated after spitting out the toothpaste.

"Yup. I noticed. Look, Carter, this isn't a big deal, okay. It's not like this is a regular thing for you, it's fine. I'm just glad I'm here."

"To take care of me," she said with a suddenly fond smile.

"Yeah," he admitted, grabbing a hand towel and wiping his mouth on it. "Now, come on, your bed is crowded but I bet you'll be able to squeeze in somewhere," he said, steering her out of the bathroom.

Once he saw that she was on a safe course to her dresser, presumably for something to sleep in, he retreated into the bathroom to quickly wash his face. He would have liked to shower himself, but felt like he should make sure Carter was asleep again first. After that, he would probably be too tired himself.

He stripped down to his boxers and decided that was the last time he took Cassie's advice about not wearing an undershirt. Not only was it quite chilly, since Carter had told him to turn the heater down considerably as they made their way through the bottle of tequila, he didn't relish the idea of parading his boxers in front of Carter. Then again, she was so drunk she might not notice or comment on the pattern... one could hope.

"You decent?" he called.

"I'm not naked if that's what you mean!" Sam called back.

Jack rolled his eyes and went back into the bedroom. He grinned in surprise. "That's my shirt!"

Sam tugged on the hem self-consciously. "You said I could keep it..."

"And it was obviously a very smart decision," he said. That had been, what... four years ago? He was shocked and touched that she was still sleeping in it. And really turned on too. Crap.

"Want me to get these hobos out of your bed?" he offered, looking for a change of topic.

"Are you kidding, Quarks always sleeps with me, and Maggie does too whenever she's here. She's really warm and toasty."

"And you, Major Carter, are really drunk," Jack said, reminding himself as much for his own benefit as hers.

"You're right about that," she agreed, going over to her usual side of the bed. "Budge up," she instructed the bed's occupants, tugging on the covers until Quarks and Maggie got the hint and moved over so that they were mostly to one side of the bed.

Jack laughed. He knew the dog and cat slept with her, but he'd never witnessed the ritual before. He constantly and loudly complained that Sam let Maggie on her bed, because whenever his dog returned from a stay at 'Hotel Carter,' she always tried to get in bed with him, and the one time he had tried to allow it she moved around so much and made the bed so hot he couldn't sleep.

Now, as he watched Sam climbing into bed, settling in among all those nice, fluffy pillows, he really couldn't blame Maggie. A comment Cassie had made once at the end of his usual tirade about Sam 'spoiling' Maggie came to mind. Cassie, fed up with his 'constant bitching,' as she had so nicely put it, had snapped and accused him of being jealous of his own dog.

Jack had tattled to Janet about Cassie's language and refused to speak to her for the rest of the afternoon that day, although secretly he had wondered when Cassie had got so damn smart.

"What are you thinking about?" Sam asked.

Jack realized he was stood next to her bed with a goofy expression on his face, staring off into space, and said, "Nothing. Just something Cassie said a long time ago."

Sam nodded and curled on her side, facing him, wincing.

"You still uncomfortable?"

"No, I feel won-der-ful," Sam promised with a slightly self-conscious smile. "Really, that massage was... incredible, I feel better than I have in a month."

"Good," Jack said, resisting the urge to do a happy dance or cheer wildly for himself. He settled for sticking his hands in his pockets and rocking on the balls of his feet a couple of times. Then he remembered something was still wrong. "So if you're not sore anymore, what..."

"Head just hurts."

"Ah yeah." He knew all about that. His head was still a-ok for the time being, but he knew tomorrow would be a completely different story.

He pulled the covers up around her snugly. "Cool comforter, Carter. Very... squishy," he commented as he sat down next to her.

"Your dog likes it."

"Yes, she does," Jack agreed, glancing down the other end of the bed at Maggie. "Okay, Carter, it's way past my bedtime. Close your eyes, we'll get ya back to sleep, then I can have some peace and quiet."

"If I recall correctly, sir, you're the one who showed up and invited yourself in by having your dog knock me to the ground and pin me down," she said lightly.

"Yeah, but you were glad to see us," he said with a confident smirk. "Now. Close your eyes."

She rolled them dramatically before doing as instructed. Jack was glad she obeyed, because he didn't want a repeat of the foot-situation, with her _looking _at him again.

Jack stroked her hair back away from her face, slowly and methodically. It was something his mom had always done with him when he was sick. Even now, sometimes, when he was really hurt and stuck in the infirmary, he kind of tried to remember how it had felt sometimes. Not that he'd ever admit that to anyone, even under duress of torture. But still. Sometimes he missed that touch.

He had missed a lot more of Charlie's childhood than he'd ever be comfortable with, but one time, when Charlie was four, Sarah's grandmother had died and she had wanted to go to the funeral alone, not wanting to expose Charlie to death so young, especially the death of a relative he had never even met.

Jack had stayed at home with him, and on the very first day, Charlie had developed a terrible ear infection. The little boy had been in so much pain, with a fever and everything. After spending a fun-filled afternoon in the waiting room of the pediatrician's office, Jack had stayed up all night stroking his son's hair, because every time he stopped, Charlie woke up.

"Are you okay?" Sam asked quietly.

"Hmm? Oh, yeah. Of course. You? You're not gonna puke on me or anything, are you?" His eyes asked her to let it go, so she did.

"Believe me, I think I already threw up everything I've eaten since 1982."

He chuckled and said, "Quite a lovely picture you just painted there, Carter, thank you very much."

"Thank _you_, sir," she said it lightly, in keeping with their current tone, but her expression changed suddenly and he recognized the unspoken thank you for everything else that had happened that night.

His hand stilled on her damp hair and he sighed sadly. "Don't stop," Sam whispered after neither of them moved for several moments.

"You can't fall asleep with your eyes open," he said gently, cautiously resuming the motion.

"You can't fall asleep sitting up," she countered.

"Carter..."

"Don't go," she said quickly. "Please."

He stared at her hard, trying to will her to understand what she was asking him to do.

She smirked slightly and said, "I'll be on my best behaviour."

He laughed and said, "Scoot over. I'm not sleeping by Maggie, she kicks."

Sam scooted over, but Maggie was managing to take up more than her fair share of space and there wasn't much room left for the people in the bed. That was more than okay with Jack, who quickly found himself in a warm, soft squashy bed with a Carter snuggled into him. Vague memories of his 2IC being plastered against his side in Antarctica floated to the front of his mind. The warm, squashy bed setting was infinitely better than lying on all that hard, cold ice with multiple fractures and internal bleeding. Still, even that hadn't been all that bad, considering.

A bare, smooth leg settled against his and he smiled. Yeah, this was a lot better. He sighed, but it came out much louder than he intended.

"Is this okay?" Sam asked, sounding nervous. No, Jack thought sarcastically. This is absolutely terrible.

"Are you _seriously _asking me that question?" was the more watered-down version he managed to get out of his mouth.

"Yes, I seriously am. I mean, if we... if Daniel hadn't..." she trailed off, but he knew what she was talking about.

"After the way your birthday ended last year, I admit I kind of... wondered whether I would be able to..." No, that sounded horrible. "I did sort of wonder if maybe..." Still wrong. "I wasn't sure I'd be able to _stop _kissing you next year," he finally said.

Miraculously, she didn't tell him to get up and go to the other bedroom. Her head shifted slightly on his shoulder and she said, "I thought about it too... not seriously thinking we would... just wondering if... whatever." He knew, at this point, that she was still quite drunk. His 2IC did not, as a rule, use the word, 'whatever.'

"But," she continued. "This wasn't exactly what I had in mind."

"Me neither. Mine involved fewer people of the canine and feline persuasion," Jack joked. They both knew what they meant, and knew there was nothing to be done about it. Done was done. Daniel's absence had affected every aspect of their lives.

"Under the circumstances though, this day is ending a lot better than I imagined it would," Sam said simply.

They were quiet for a while, until Jack remembered the reason he had joined her on the bed in the first place. "Er... head still hurting?"

"Yeah. And the shower was really good but it did wake me up some too."

"I know." He resumed stroking her hair, forcing the other hand that was settled at the small of her back to stay absolutely still.

"Weird day," Sam said after several long minutes of silence.

"Most of our days are weird," he said gently, trying to encourage her to talk. "You'll have to be more specific."

"Some of the time it was like I was outside of my own body... I'm talking about before you came over, mostly. Sometimes everything was sort of numb... like I was watching it happen to someone else. And then sometimes it was like all my senses were heightened, and everything I saw or heard or smelt instantly took me back in time to some random memory of Daniel."

"Yeah," he agreed. He knew exactly what she was talking about, although he never would have been able to put it into words properly.

His hand slipped down to her neck and his fingers ran into her necklace. He swallowed hard, feeling along the back of it.

"What are you doing?" she finally asked.

"Trying to find the clasp for your necklace. I don't think you should sleep in it, it could choke you."

She sighed heavily, knowing he was right but still wanting the connection to Daniel she felt when she had it on. "I'll put it on the nightstand where you can see it," he promised.

"It doesn't have a clasp," she explained, lifting her head off his shoulder to start unwinding it from her neck. "Daniel told me the woman who made it explained that they didn't believe in breaking the unity of the chain."

"I always wondered how he lost his handgun on '424," Jack commented casually, helping her get the necklace off. He turned away from her so he could set it on the nightstand. When he turned back over, she instantly snuggled close again. He automatically resumed the stroking of her hair.

"He told me he traded a blank notebook..." Sam muttered.

"Among other things, apparently," Jack said with a shrug.

Sam nodded, her eyes filling with tears as she thought about Daniel's explanation of the meaning behind the necklace.

She blinked them away. She had cried enough today already.

"I would have done anything to keep you from feeling like this," Jack admitted, scarcely able even to hear the barely whispered words coming out of his own mouth.

"I know."

"I wish there was... something I could say... Daniel was good at..."

"It's okay. You don't have to say anything," Sam mumbled, nuzzling his shoulder and taking a deep breath. He could tell the moment she fell asleep; if he could tell across a tent, a prison cell, or the infirmary, he could surely tell now.

Jack looked down at the top of her head and smiled. There was no way she could have known that he had heard her say that once before, three years ago. Well, an alternate version of her at any rate.

He stopped stroking her hair and closed his eyes, not sure if he would be able to sleep or not. The absence of the motion apparently had the same affect on her it had had on Charlie. She stirred and lifted her head off his shoulder before he could resume the action and blinked at him.

She looked really confused, and for a second he was worried she was going to freak out that they were in bed together. Then her gaze dropped down to his mouth and she said, "You never kissed me."

He lifted his head to meet hers for a gentle kiss. It wouldn't be fair to say that it was perfectly friendly or chaste, but it was still completely nonsexual, although, in a strange way, still incredibly loving. The nature of the kiss took even Jack by surprise, he realized as he blinked slowly and smiled at her. Huh, he thought, suddenly proud of himself. I've certainly never kissed anybody like _that _before. "Happy birthday," was what came out of his mouth instead.

"Thank you," Sam mumbled, snuggling back into the space between his shoulder and neck. After three slow breaths, Jack knew she was asleep again.

It occurred to him, as he drifted off to sleep, that he would never have the guts to tease her for saying 'Thank you' when he kissed her. But he'd have a lot of fun doing it in his own head.


	6. Cats and Aliens

A/N: Poor Jack.

Ch 6: Cats and Aliens

When Jack woke up the next morning, there was a warm weight on his chest and he knew someone was watching him. He opened his eyes, the corners of his lips already beginning to curl up in a smile, and was met with a calm, curious look from a pair of piercing blue eyes.

Unfortunately, these particular eyes sat just above a little pink nose and whiskers, just below two triangular ears, and were surrounded by quite a lot of soft black fur. Quarks was perched on his chest, his tail flicking in the air lazily, staring at him.

"Not exactly the baby blues I wanted to see," Jack informed the cat. The cat didn't look offended by the remark. Rather, satisfied that he was awake, Quarks resumed his previous position, curled up in a ball on Jack's bare chest.

"Hey, what do I look like, a cat condo?" Jack asked, sitting up and looking around, confirming that he was indeed alone in the bed now. Well, except for Quarks, of course. No Carter, no Maggie in sight. The house sounded pretty quiet too. "What happened to the blondes that were with us?" he asked the cat, surprised that Carter was up before him. She had been completely zonked all night long, not moving once.

Jack knew this because he had awoken several times during the night feeling like he was sleeping inside a fireplace. Between the dog and cat in the bed with them and Carter practically lying on top of him, plus all the alcohol in his system, he was just too hot to sleep very much. Not that he minded. Still, he was surprised Carter and Maggie had managed to get out of the bed without waking him.

Getting to his feet and dumping the cat back on the bed, Jack headed straight for the bathroom. The inside of his mouth felt absolutely disgusting. Frowning as he stared at the two toothbrushes by the sink, he couldn't remember which one he'd given to Carter the night before and which one he'd used for himself. Shrugging, he picked the one on the left and resolved not to mention it. What Carter didn't know wouldn't hurt her, right? Quarks leapt up to the counter and continued to watch him curiously. "Let's keep this between you and me, pal," Jack muttered to the cat, squeezing an excessive amount of toothpaste onto the brush.

He frowned at himself in the mirror as he scrubbed out the inside of his mouth vigorously. His head was pounding, and he looked exactly as someone who drank half a bottle of tequila the night before could be expected to look. His hair, which he never bothered much about, was sticking up at eighty-four thousand different angles, making him all too aware that he needed to get it trimmed again.

He also needed to shower and shave, but the shaving part wasn't likely to be happening anytime soon. He had a very vivid memory of borrowing one of Carter's girly razors off-world about three years ago in a 'stubble emergency.' When he had finished mangling his face with the damn pink thing, Teal'c had calmly asked if he needed to go back to the SGC for a transfusion.

For some reason, the cat seemed desperate for his attention this morning, Jack noticed as he spit in the sink and rinsed. Well, that was a bit strange. Quarks usually pretty much ignored him unless there was nobody else around. Oh. So there was probably nobody else around. Well, that kind of sucked. Jack had been looking forward to a slow-start morning, already trying to remember if Carter had any eggs in her fridge he could cook.

On the other hand, maybe he could grab a shower and start looking halfway human again before he ran into his 2IC. Maybe he could find some clean clothes to put on as well, he added as he scooped up the cat and headed to the kitchen in his boxers. He needed coffee and aspirin, and lots of both.

As he stepped into the living room he heard a loud knocking on the door. Wincing at the noise, which bounced around in his head like a Superball, he headed for the door, Quarks held against his chest with one hand. It was probably Morgan. Anytime the kid saw Jack's truck over, he was bound to come over and visit Maggie.

Jack opened the door, prepared to tell the kid his dog appeared not to be home at the moment, but it wasn't Morgan. He squinted as the bright outdoor light hurt his eyes and head, wondering exactly how late it really was, and took in the forms of Teal'c, Jonas, and worst of all, Jacob Carter.

All four men stood as if frozen. The three aliens (well, okay, Teal'c and Jacob were what... half-alien each?) on the doorstep stared at Jack and he stared back. The first thing he noticed, was, oddly, the most subtle: Teal'c. His eyebrow twitched slightly in surprise, threatening to climb higher towards his bald pate, but Teal'c schooled his features quickly.

Jonas just looked plain confused, and Jacob... well, Jacob looked like he would very much like to rip Jack apart at the moment, but since Jack was still in one piece, he figured Selmak had taken control of his (her? Jack had never really known) host's body and was probably trying to calm him down. Selmak was definitely Jack's favourite snake of all time.

Jonas was the first to speak, and he predictably only made things worse. "Teal'c, I thought we were going to Major Carter's house." If it had been Daniel, it would have been deliberate. Jack knew Jonas well enough to know by now that with him, it really wasn't.

"This is Major Carter's house, Jonas Quinn," Teal'c replied. "And I am sure O'Neill has a reasonable explanation for his unusual appearance. Perhaps if he allows us entrance, we will be able to hear it," Teal'c said, pointedly trying to get everyone past the frozen staring phase.

"Uh, right, Teal'c. That I do. Uh... come on in." He stepped aside, clutching Quarks to his bare chest like a security blanket, suddenly feeling very exposed. He suddenly really, really wished he wasn't wearing the camouflage boxer shorts Ferretti liked to give out as a joke.

Jacob still hadn't said anything, which was really unnerving. Jack wanted to get the yelling part over with so he could explain. Shutting the door as slowly as he possibly could, Jack eventually had no choice but to join the three men in the living room.

Things got, impossibly, worse after that. Last night when they had been drinking, they'd only had a lamp on, and Jack had known they'd made a mess of Carter's living room, but as Carter herself had been a bigger mess at the time, he hadn't done anything about it. And apparently, wherever Sam had escaped to with his dog this morning, she hadn't bothered to straighten up before she left either. Jack tried to take in the sight from an outsider's perspective.

He glanced at the clock and noticed it was almost noon. So, he answers his 2IC's door covered in nothing but camo boxers and Carter's cat, obviously just rolled out of bed, his hair a mess, needing a shave and a shower, probably not really smelling all that pleasant either, with an obvious hangover... then, as if he didn't look bad enough on his own, Jack took in the sight of the living room as slowly as everyone else was.

The chair was piled high with the fishing gear and Carter's sweater was draped half on top of the lot, half over the arm of the chair, having very obviously been thrown there. That was the first thing he noticed, and he knew instinctively it was the first thing Jacob had noticed also. The empty tequila bottle was lying on its side on the coffee table, the shot glasses near it, and the now mostly-empty bowl of lemon rinds teetered near the edge of the table.

Maggie must have licked the cake plates clean, and also got into the lemon rinds or something, because Jack was pretty sure that he and Carter weren't responsible for the fact that they were scattered all over the table and the floor as well. Sam's tiara was perched on an arm of the couch and the party hats were scattered randomly across the floor. The salt shaker had rolled under the coffee table, several of the throw pillows were smashed into one corner of the couch, and the blanket was draped messily over the back of the couch.

Apparently even a two-thousand year old snake in the head wasn't enough to contain the wrath of an angry father. Jacob, who had been eerily still for several minutes, suddenly lunged for Jack, swearing in Goa'uld and taking a huge swing at him that Jack only just managed to duck. Quarks, scared at the sudden lurching movement despite the fact that Jack was careful to keep him held close to his body, mewled loudly, and Jack was suddenly very glad Carter had him declawed.

"Jacob, I know this looks bad, I understand you're upset," Jack started babbling, trying to put Jonas and Teal'c between himself and Jacob. "But I promise there's a perfectly good explanation for all of this and it's not what you think, and come on, you wouldn't hit a guy holding an innocent little cat, would you? So why don't we all just calm down and..."

"I felt sorry for you last year, you asshole!" Jacob yelled, suddenly finding his voice.

"What?" Jack squeaked, not having any idea what he was talking about.

"At your party, when you were DANCING WITH MY DAUGHTER. I talked to George and had decided to just feel sorry for you guys, because he ASSURED me you would NEVER do anything like this while you were her COMMANDING OFFICER. CHRIST, Jack, it's Daniel's BIRTHDAY! How could you take advantage of the situation like that, I thought you had more respect for both of them than that but apparently all you can do is think with your..."

"HEY!" Jack yelled, squaring his shoulders and standing firm. "I HAVEN'T DONE ANYTHING WRONG HERE, JUST SHUT UP FOR A SECOND AND LISTEN TO ME!"

Telling Jacob to shut up was probably not the smartest thing he could have done at the moment, Jack realized as Jacob made to lunge at him again.

Teal'c apparently thought it was wise to get everyone out of that room, and fast, because he planted himself impassively between the two men and said, "O'Neill, perhaps we should go have coffee."

Teal'c didn't _drink _coffee, but everyone else here did, and Jack was at the point where coffee was about as important to him as oxygen at the moment, so he gratefully said, "Good idea, Teal'c!"

Jonas looked scared to death. Jack felt a little sorry for the guy, who was probably feeling really out of the loop at the moment. "Come on, Jonas, let's go see if Carter's made coffee."

"You don't know where she is?" Jonas asked, apparently trying to find anything else in the world to talk about.

"No. Just woke up. I was on a coffee and aspirin hunt when you lot showed up," Jack said as he led the way into the kitchen.

The coffee pot was completely full, Jack noticed gratefully. And there was a post-it stuck to it. He hurried over to it, snatching it off the pot as he dumped the cat on the counter absently. He read it to himself: -Sir, Mags and I went out for a run. Back soon, Carter.

"Well, where the hell is my daughter?" Jacob asked impatiently. Jonas was opening all the cabinets. Jack knew he was looking for coffee mugs. When it came to food, the boy had a one-track mind.

"She took Maggie for a run," Jack said, shaking his head incredulously as he opened the proper cabinet and grabbed a few mugs. The woman had been _so _drunk the night before, how was she up before him today and perky enough to be out running? He knew she hadn't eaten anything either, because if she had she would've accompanied it with coffee, and the pot was still completely full when he poured himself the first cup.

Jonas was right beside him, waiting for the coffee when Jack was done with it. Jack leaned back against the counter, still keeping one eye on Jacob in case he decided to attack again. Jack noticed that Teal'c was doing the same thing.

"General Carter, would you like some coffee?" Jonas offered, holding up the pot.

"No thanks, Jonas. Selmak doesn't like it," Jacob said. He shook his head abruptly and said, "Screw that. I'm having coffee." Jonas obediently poured the man a cup.

Everyone stood, watching everyone else warily, for several moments.

"What's wrong with Major Carter's cat?" Jonas asked. The cat was mewling like crazy, pacing the counter behind Jack and rubbing against his back. Jack, suspecting what the cat wanted, had been trying to ignore him.

Jack rolled his eyes. If the cat had been in bed with him, he hadn't eaten... hoping his stomach was strong enough to handle it, he muttered, "He's hungry," and reluctantly grabbed a can of cat food. Quarks watched the electric can opener work on his breakfast eagerly. Jack pinched his nose with one hand and dumped the can out in Quarks's bowl as quickly as possible. He tossed the can in the bin and moved away from the counter, hoping to get away from the smell.

He ended up next to Jonas, who still wasn't drinking his coffee, and he was scanning the room quickly. Jack remembered how much sugar the boy put in it and quickly located it for him. "Thanks, Colonel O'Neill."

"Spoons over there," Jack added casually, nodding at the silverware drawer.

Apparently, 'spoons over there' was not what Jacob Carter wanted to hear. He punched Jack right in the face, catching everyone in the room off-guard. Jack screamed, "HOLY SHIT, JACOB!" and grabbed his jaw automatically in the split second before he slipped and fell to the floor, wacking his head on what felt like the corner of the counter on the way down.

Everyone started yelling at once. Jack, supremely pissed off at how horribly wrong the whole day was going, was swearing up a storm, yelling at Jacob and moaning about his face, lying on his back on the very cold tile. Quarks leapt off the counter, landing none too lightly on Jack's stomach, and started hissing at Jacob.

"Didn't know you cared, pal," Jack mumbled to the cat amidst all the yelling.

Teal'c had a restraining hand on Jacob's shoulder, although it didn't seem necessary any more. Jacob AND Selmak were taking turns yelling at each other, which was a sight to see in and of itself, and Teal'c and Jonas were yelling at everyone to calm down and demanding that Jack tell them if he was okay.

Jack's head was really, truly about to explode, he was positive. Carter would have to move, because she'd never be able to clean up all the little pieces of brain matter that were about to splatter all over her kitchen. The yelling made his hangover worse, as did the bright lights of the kitchen. The whole back of his body was freezing from the cold tile, there was an angry cat on his chest, he was pretty sure his temple was bleeding, and his jaw felt like it had come unhinged. And everyone was still yelling.

Suddenly, a familiar voice broke through the cacophony of noises assaulting him, as Carter loudly yelled, "EVERYONE SHUT UP AND SOMEBODY TELL ME WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE!"


	7. Rules and Stitches

A/N: Fresh from the produce stands, the last and longest chapter of them all. I was soooooo very tempted to hang onto this one for a while, waiting for a few more reviews to come in first, but I just couldn't do it. I hope you enjoy this last installment of Year 6. This chapter and the last completely spun out of control and took on a life of their own - at first when I decided to have Jacob show up, he was going to be alone. Then I thought Teal'c and Jonas deserved to make an appearance. Then of course, Janet and Cassie felt left out... For a story that was supposed to be just Jack and Sam, this one ended up very crowded!

BT7 and the rest will be out as soon as I figure out a few details and get time to sit down and actually write the things... I've never actually written Pete before because I like to pretend he doesn't exist, so that should be an interesting experience for me. Thank you so much for your interest in this series - it has turned into so much more than I ever imagined. It started off as a meager little story on an abandoned disk in my night stand, and now I'm actually rather proud of it.

Ch 7: Rules and Stitches

Sam pushed her way past Teal'c and Jonas, looked down at Jack on the ground, and exclaimed, "Sir, you're bleeding!"

"Dad's here," Jack managed weakly as Carter snapped into her medical-emergency mode and shooed the cat off his chest. She was also trying to block Maggie from getting to him, with great difficulty. Hey, Maggie's human was lying on the ground hurt and people were yelling at him! She wanted to help him NOW!

"Teal'c, take Maggie outside," Sam ordered.

"Come, Magnet O'Neill," Teal'c said firmly, picking the dog up and disappearing from Jack's line of sight.

Despite all the commotion, Jack couldn't help grinning up at her, although it made his jaw hurt even more. She was wearing her running clothes, of course, sporting tight running pants and jacket, which was currently hanging open, unzipped, over a sports bra thingy, and she was a delightful combination of worried about him and pissed off at everyone else. She looked _good. _Maybe getting hit by Jacob wasn't all that bad after all.

"Nice run, Carter?" Jack asked, trying to take some of the attention off of himself as Carter knelt down next to him and pulled him up to a sitting position.

"Yeah, it was fine. Jonas, what happened here?" Apparently Carter had figured out roughly what had happened already, because she was counting on the neutral party to explain.

While Jonas started talking, Carter helped Jack to his feet carefully and helped him over to a chair at the kitchen table. Jonas was trying to explain the situation as diplomatically as possible, but wasn't having much luck.

Carter told him to shut up, shot a glare at her father, and grabbed a bag of frozen peas from the freezer, pressing them carefully into Jack's jaw, which was already beginning to swell. "What are you all doing here anyway?" she asked, replacing her hand on the bag of peas with Jack's and instructing him to keep it there while she went to the sink.

She grabbed a tea towel and ran it under the tap and started dabbing at the blood oozing from the cut on Jack's forehead, right along the hairline on his left temple. He hissed and tried to knock her hand away, but she snapped at him to be still. Jack firmly believed, at that moment, that she was spending way too much time with Dr. Fraiser. What little bedside manner she had possessed when he met her had been completely overridden. He knew, at the back of his mind, that she was being as gentle as possible, but it still hurt like hell.

"George told me you knew I was coming today," Jacob said, finally answering her question.

"I did, Dad, I just... didn't know what time."

"Well, I got here this morning, went through all the physicals and everything, and when I was talking to Dr. Fraiser she mentioned that you didn't have a party this year, so I thought I'd take everyone out to lunch. Oh... we're supposed to let her know where so she and Cassie can meet us... anyway, I asked Teal'c and Jonas if they wanted to go ahead and come with me so they didn't have to find an SF to drive them later, and... here we are."

"Oh," Sam said. "Well, you might as well ring Janet now, I think this might need a couple of stitches."

"What!" Jack croaked.

She gave him a sympathetic smile and mouthed, "Sorry." He knew she wasn't just talking about the stitches.

He set the bag of peas down, his hand now numb as well, and said, "Just use those butterfly things, I don't need stitches..."

"I think we'll let Janet determine that, sir," Sam replied, turning her attention to Jonas and saying, "Well? Janet! Go!"

Jonas hurried over to the phone. Sam gave Jack a glass of water and two aspirin, waited for him to swallow, then pressed the bag of peas back against the side of his face. He sighed, defeated. But he was really, really glad she was back. She was the only person he knew who would ever dare to put Jacob Carter in his place.

He watched her closely, waiting for the moment when her anger replaced her need to make sure he was okay. He watched her brain click over into angry and leaned back in his chair with a tiny, satisfied smile as her eyes narrowed and she turned to her father.

"So, what, Dad, you showed up and assumed Colonel O'Neill and I were breaking every frat reg known to man and decided to let him have it?"

"Sam, go take a look at that living room. I still haven't heard an explanation but it looks like..."

"I don't give a damn WHAT it looks like!" Sam countered hotly. Jack's smile got bigger. She was hitting her stride now... Jacob was in for it. "First of all, I would have thought you had more trust in Colonel O'Neill and in me! Second of all, even if we WERE breaking regs it wouldn't really be any of your damn business! I'm not a little girl, Dad, and I'm certainly capable of taking care of myself. I don't need you trying to protect me from ANYONE. And most of all, you KNOW how much Daniel and I loved having the same..." she hesitated, choking suddenly.

Her emotions were still raw and she faltered on his name, tried valiantly to continue, and suddenly broke. Not wanting to cry in front of everyone, she pushed past Jonas and hurried out of the room. A few seconds later, Jack winced as he heard her bedroom door slam loudly.

"Crap," Jacob muttered, taking a step as if to go after her.

Bad idea, Jack thought. Teal'c concurred. He stepped in front of Jacob and said, "I suggest you give Major Carter some privacy."

"My daughter is upset, Teal'c, I..."

Teal'c's expression plainly said the matter wasn't open for discussion. Man, he was awesome, Jack thought for the millionth time, grinning at his largest friend and setting the bag of peas on the table now that Carter was out of the room.

"O'Neill," Teal'c said evenly. Jack mumbled under his breath and picked the bag of peas up again reluctantly.

Maggie had been scratching at the back door like a maniac, trying to get inside and make sure he was okay. Jack winced as he pictured what she was probably doing to Carter's back door, figuring he'd be repainting it sometime in the near future. "Hey, somebody let my dog in before she figures out how to pick the lock."

Jonas, who knew the Colonel had a dog but had never personally met her, volunteered for the job. He opened the back door and Maggie came into the room like she was on fire, slipping on the tile and scrambling in place for a few seconds as she tried to veer off her original course and head for Jack.

She jumped up on him, sniffing everywhere and licking his face while he tried to assure her he was okay and get her off of him at the same time. She finally concluded he would live and turned her attention to everyone else in the room, starting with Teal'c. By the time she got round to sniffing Jonas, he was asking Teal'c all kinds of questions about her and dogs in general. Jack watched them, his head starting to get a little fuzzy.

"Hey, Jonas, why don't you fill up her water bowl," Jack suggested, pointing its location out with a tilt of his head. "She hasn't had any since her run with Carter."

"Sure thing, Colonel O'Neill," Jonas said, eager to help. He filled up the bowl and watched Maggie lap up the water, entertained by the way she sloppily drank, splashing water everywhere. "Would you like me to feed her too?"

"Yeah... wait, no, you can't," Jack said. "She just went on a strenuous walk, she's got to wait before eating."

"Oh." Jonas paused and asked, "Why?"

"I'm not sure," Jack admitted. "Ask Carter later."

"Okay."

"I better go check on Carter," Jack mumbled, getting to his feet. He could _feel _the look Jacob was giving him, but that wasn't a priority at the moment.

He had only taken two steps when a voice he dreaded when he was injured called, "Hello? Where is everybod... oh, there you are." Janet appeared in the kitchen with her well-stocked medical bag.

"Sit back down, Colonel, and let me take a look at you," Janet said firmly. Jack lowered himself back into his chair reluctantly.

"I'm going to go try to talk to Sam," Jacob said resolutely, setting his mug down and getting up.

At hearing her second-favourite human's name, Maggie perked up. Then, seeing one of the new people leaving, she went with him. Her human was hurt, but he was okay, and _that _man had something to do with it. There was no way Maggie was letting him near her Sam unsupervised.

"Jacob, I wouldn't do that if I were you," Jack called half-heartedly.

He tolerated the doc buzzing around him like a mosquito as he listened for sounds of a commotion. Sure enough, he soon heard the bedroom door shut loudly, but it wasn't quite an angry slam, more of a 'barely escape in one piece' slam.

Jacob reappeared in the kitchen, saying, "She chucked a shoe at my head and told me to get out! Then when I took a step towards her that mad dog of yours started growling at me until I left!"

"Good dog," Jack muttered.

Janet had heard him. She caught his eyes and smiled almost imperceptibly, then said, "Well, this doesn't need stitches, sir. I think we can tape you up and there won't even be a scar."

"Thanks doc. Hurry it up will you, I haven't eaten yet."

"How can you think about food in the middle of all of this?" Janet asked incredulously.

"Picked it up from Jonas?" Jack tried hopefully.

Fraiser laughed quietly, then giggled outright as Jonas objected with a, "Hey!"

"So, when is someone going to fill me in on what I missed?" Janet finally asked, glancing around the crowded kitchen. "Jonas was a little vague on the phone."

"Yeah, I'd like to hear all the details myself now, Jack," Jacob said. "For all yours and Sam's insisting that nothing was going on here last night, there sure seem to be a lot of clothes lying about!"

"Huh?" Jack asked.

"Well, granted I wasn't in her bedroom for very long but unless my daughter's taken to wearing men's clothes there were an awful lot of them on the floor in there. Plus there's the sweater that looks like it was flung across the room onto the armchair, and there's a bra and a pair of panties in the hall!"

"Wh? Huh?" Jack knew for a fact that those last two, the ones Jacob was probably most upset about, were not his fault. Then he remembered the laundry that had got spread everywhere and groaned. "Okay, the underwear is because Quarks and Maggie like to play with the laundry."

Everyone stared at him. Yeah, okay, that sounded pretty implausible. "I swear!" Jack insisted. "They spread a whole basket round Carter's bedroom last night, but I guess some of it spilt out into the hall and I didn't notice..."

"And your clothes just fell off of your body as you helped my daughter into bed and then took yourself off to the spare bedroom?" Jacob suggested sarcastically.

"Er... no. Not exactly," Jack admitted. "Look... we slept in the same bed, but nothing happened..." he wasn't sure at the moment whether he wished everyone else wasn't there, or was really, really grateful he had witnesses to this.

"Quarks and Maggie were in the bed too, and I swear Carter fell asleep in about two seconds and didn't move all night."

"That implies that you didn't fall asleep right away, Jack, so why would you choose to stay in what must have been a very crowded bed if you had a choice?"

"I..." Jack faltered. Jacob probably didn't want to hear that his daughter had begged him not to leave with the full-on doe-eyed look he'd never been able to say no to... clearing his head, he reminded himself that there were four people watching him and waiting for an explanation.

While nobody else seemed upset besides Jacob, they all wanted to know what had really happened. He supposed he couldn't blame them. Janet wasn't very subtle about her opinion of the frat regs as they applied to the two of them. Teal'c knew pretty much everything that had ever happened between them. He hadn't even blinked when he caught them making out on the couch last year... and Jonas... well, Jack wasn't sure what Jonas thought about all of this, to be honest. He'd have to make sure the kid knew not to go blabbing any of this around the base.

"Look, Jacob," Jack finally said, taking a deep breath. "I understand this must look pretty bad. But I swear to you, last night was completely about Daniel. And if you really think that I would manipulate this situation to..." Jack couldn't even say it. He felt like he might vomit, but decided to tell himself it was the hangover. "If you really believe that either of us would do something like that, you don't know me at all and you sure as hell don't know your daughter."

Jack and Jacob locked gazes for several moments. Janet finally cleared her throat and said, "Well, you're all patched up Colonel. Teal'c, Jonas, let's go clean up the living room."

The alien half of SG-1 followed Janet out of the kitchen, leaving the two men alone to talk. Quarks leapt up onto Jack's lap. Jack started petting him absently, which seemed to spur Jacob into speaking again. "But you do, don't you," he said quietly.

"What?" Jack asked.

"You know her, don't you? Better than I do, right? Isn't that what you meant?"

"Jake, I didn't..."

"You know her cat, you know how to cheer her up, how to take care of her, you know where the cat food and the coffee cups and the damn sugar and spoons are in her kitchen..."

Jack suddenly realized this wasn't about him at all anymore.

"Jacob... I just know all that stuff because I'm here. Daniel knew it all too. Teal'c knows even more about all of us than I do. Jonas hasn't been over here before but now that he has I'm sure he can tell you the names of all those alphabetized books on the shelf in the living room..."

"Whereas all I've done since I showed up is punch you in the face, make you bust your head open, and sent my daughter crying hysterically into her room."

"Hey, you do make an entrance, I'll give you that," Jack said easily.

Jacob shook his head suddenly, chuckling. "You're a strange man, Jack O'Neill, but somehow you put people at ease. I guess I should be thanking you for doing what I can't."

"What do you mean?"

"For being here for my daughter."

"It's my job," Jack said uncomfortably, suddenly realizing he was having a heart-to-heart with Carter's dad whilst sat in the middle of her kitchen with a bag of frozen peas pressed to his face in nothing but camo shorts. Somehow, when he had gone to sleep last night snuggling his 2IC, this was not how he had envisioned the next morning.

"It's your job to keep her safe," Jacob countered. "It's not your job to make sure she's doing okay, or to make sure she has a happy birthday every year, or any of that. But you do it."

Jack shrugged, wondering if Jacob was heading into the 'inappropriate feelings' territory again, but Jacob shook his head and said, "I guess I'm sorry I hit you."

"You GUESS?" Jack couldn't help but tease.

"Hey, it... felt pretty damn good at the time," Jacob admitted.

"Yeah, I'll bet," Jack mumbled. "Look... you're a Tok'ra. A really important one. Of course you can't be around here all the time. Carter understands that, and she _was _right before, Jake. She can take care of herself."

"I've just missed so much of her life," Jacob mumbled. "Even before I became a Tok'ra." He sighed heavily.

Jack didn't have anything to say to that except, "We all have to put aside things we want because we have a job to do."

Jacob looked at him sternly for several moments and finally said, "Don't go making me feel sorry for you again."

Jack raised both eyebrows but said nothing.

Finally, Jacob said, "Maybe you could go check on her? See if she wants us to go or if we can still all have lunch?"

"Yeah, okay, but if she throws the other shoe at me I may have to rethink forgiving you for that left hook," Jack said, launching the bag of peas across the kitchen to land in the sink. "Three pointer!" he declared happily, pausing in his victory cheer as the bag burst open and frozen peas flew out of the sink, bouncing and rolling along the countertops and floors.

"Crap," he muttered. He turned to Jacob with a winning smile and offered, "I'll clean up your mess and you clean up mine?"

"Deal," Jacob said quickly.

Jack carried Quarks past all the curious glances of the people in the living room and headed to Carter's bedroom, kicking the problem-inducing bra and panties along the corridor as he went to get them out of sight. He knocked on Carter's door quietly, pushing it open cautiously.

"It's me, don't shoot!" he said, poking his head in and smiling at her. She was curled up on the bed, absently petting Maggie, who was laying next to her watching her in concern.

"Hi, sir," she called. He could tell she was still crying, but not as hard as before.

"Can I come in without having footwear hurled at my head? It's kind of been knocked about a lot already today."

Carter laughed and said, "It's safe."

He kicked her underwear inside and shut the door. She laughed at the way he was trying to avoid touching the clothes and wiped her eyes.

"So," Jack said, sitting down on the bed and releasing Quarks. He too took up petting Maggie, and said, "Dad loves me again."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. He overreacted, Carter, but the living room did look pretty bad, and I had just woken up when they showed up."

She gave a noncommital nod and he decided to put that aside for the time being. "Hey, what's the reason Maggie can't eat after running? Jonas was asking and I forgot what it's called."

"Bloat," Carter reminded him. "It can happen to big dogs after they've been exercising vigorously. They eat, and when they start to digest their food, their stomach basically gets twisted around. It's nearly always fatal."

"Right. Thanks. I couldn't remember what it was called, I just remembered it was a big no-no."

"That's what I'm here for, sir."

Jack smiled at her and carefully asked, "You okay?"

"Yeah, I just... I wasn't expecting to come home to... all that. I mean Maggie and I left you asleep in bed and half an hour later we come home and my house is full of people yelling and you're lying on the floor bleeding..."

"Yeah it was a surprise for me too," he grinned. He couldn't help but ask, "So... what exactly _were _you expecting to come home to?"

She flushed slightly and said, "I don't know... quiet, nice, calm. I figured you'd have a hangover..."

"Got that right."

"...so you wouldn't be moving very fast. If you were awake when we got back I thought we could have breakfast..."

"At noon," he put in, nudging her lightly. "That... would have been a much better way to spend the day," he agreed. "I was going to make you my world-famous omelet!"

She laughed and said, "Sorry I missed that."

"Some other time," he said, waving a hand dismissively. "So, want me to go kick all those people out of here or do you want to go to lunch?"

"I guess we should go."

"You don't have to. They'll understand if you want to be alone. Your dad shouldn't have invited everyone over without checking with you first."

"Maybe. But it's okay. I... I want to. But I'm taking a shower first."

"First as in 'before we leave,' or first as in 'before I let my devastatingly handsome CO have a turn?'" Jack asked.

She took in his messy appearance and said, "I guess you do need one. Do you have any clothes though? Your pants are pretty wrinkled but I guess they'll do, but your shirt..."

"I've got a bag in my car."

"Good. But I'm still going first," Sam said quickly, scrambling off the bed and hurrying into the bathroom before he could fight her for the shower.

He banged on the door and called, "If you're not out of there in fifteen minutes I'm joining you!"

"There's no clock in here!" she called back. He frowned, puzzled. He'd been expecting either a half-embarrassed/half-scolding 'sir!' or for her to tease him back. He had no idea what that response meant.

Shrugging it off, he went back into the living room, slightly disturbed by how comfortable everyone seemed to be with him walking around in his shorts. At least Janet had the good graces to look embarrassed and avert her eyes, and she was his doctor, fercryinoutloud, she'd seen it all!

"Hey, Jonas, T, could one of you run out to my truck and grab my bag? I'm not sure where we're going for lunch but I'm assuming it's a no shoes, no shirt, no service kind of place."

"Give me your keys, O'Neill," Teal'c requested. Jack looked around for his keys... they were probably on the table by the door... nope. They must still be in the pocket of his jeans. Jeans that were on the floor of Carter's bedroom.

For the first time that day, he felt really, truly embarrassed. He wasn't sure why it hit him then, maybe it was a delayed reaction, but he could feel everyone's eyes on his back as he walked back down the hall to Carter's bedroom. He slipped inside, quickly grabbed his jeans and found his keys, and took them back, handing them to Teal'c without meeting anyone's eyes.

Teal'c fetched the bag and Jack practically ran back to Carter's room with it. He tossed it on the bed and started pacing the room until he heard the shower shut off. A few minutes later, Carter came out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel. She looked only mildly surprised to see him and said, "Let me grab my stuff and I can get ready out here while you shower."

"Okay. Hey, I don't suppose there's any chance you've got a razor lying around that's not pink?"

"Actually, I do," she said, gesturing for him to follow her back into the bathroom. He did, waving the humid, steamy air away from his face.

"Geez, Carter, save any hot water for me?" he grumbled.

She was too busy rummaging around in a drawer with one hand, the other insuring that her towel stayed in place, to answer. "Here," she finally said, handing him an unopened package of men's disposable razors.

"What are these for?" he asked, too dumbfounded that she'd actually had them to say anything else.

"Just in case," she said with a shrug. "But you'll have to use my shaving cream or improvise or something," she added, turning to go.

She stopped in the doorway and said, "Sir?"

"Yeah?"

"MINE is the blue one."

He struggled to figure out what that meant and then remembered the toothbrushes. He grinned sheepishly, apologized, and then spent his entire shower wondering how she had figured that one out.

After showering and shaving, Jack realized he smelt like Carter now. Well, mostly. Something was still off, but he definitely smelt more like her at the moment than himself. With a towel round his waist, he went into the bedroom for his clothes, freezing as he spotted Carter in the middle of the bed, dressed and apparently all ready to go, reading.

She looked up at him in surprise. "I thought you would be out there with everyone else," Jack said quickly.

Her eyes flickered over him, making him shiver.

Blushing slightly, she looked back down at her book and said, "I didn't want to."

"Sam, you don't have to go out with everyone today if you don't want to."

"No, I do want to do that, just... not yet."

He shrugged and said, "All right. I'll ah... go get dressed in the bathroom."

He retreated into the bathroom with his bag and quickly dressed in jeans and a charcoal sweater. When he went back into the bedroom, Sam was putting on her shoes, so he took the opportunity to let his own eyes wander over her. She was dressed casually as well, in casual black slacks and a simple white V-neck sweater.

She looked great. The sparkle was back in her eyes and while he certainly wasn't naive enough to think he had magically fixed everything Daniel's departure had broken, it was impossible to deny that she looked infinitely better today than she had yesterday.

"What?" Sam asked self-consciously, her cheeks glowing red under his gaze.

"You uh... forgot something," he said quickly, going over to her nightstand and grabbing Daniel's necklace. Her eyes shone with tears again and she turned around so he could put it on. He draped it over her carefully, looping it around twice more like he'd seen her do, trying not to mess up her hair too much in the process, then turned her around to face him, looking down at the necklace. "There."

She touched the necklace automatically and looked up at him. "Thank you."

"No problem. Now come on, let's go eat. And you're cleaning your plate today if I have to sit at the table and make airplane noises with my fork!" he said with conviction, heading for the door. He was really trying to lighten the sudden tension in the room.

"Sir."

He paused, his hand on the doorknob, and turned back around slowly. Nobody should be able to convey that much with one three letter word, he was certain. Carter had a thousand meanings she could convey with that word. "Sir, put that down or I'll kick your ass out of my lab" and "Gosh, sir, that was really, really funny, I can't believe you said that" were two of his favourites. This one was more along the lines of "Sir, please answer the question so they won't think we're trying to assassinate the president" and "Sir, please become a Tok'ra for a little while."

Jack was tempted to laugh at how long they stood there staring at each other, but it really wasn't all that funny. He shifted uncomfortably on his feet and said, "Carter..."

It was the "Carter" that very clearly meant "Carter, for the love of God, please stop." But she didn't. Before he had time to process what was happening, she had closed the distance between them with two steps, grabbed handfuls of his sweater to twist him into place and keep him there, and kissed him, exactly as he had done to her the night before.

She ended the kiss and released his sweater, smoothing out the wrinkles on his chest. He leaned into her hands involuntarily, trying to get his brain to switch back on so he could think of something. Anything, he wasn't too picky.

Carter suddenly laughed and he recoiled. "What's so funny!"

"Sorry, I was just picturing Cassie's face when she meets us at the restaurant..."

"Oh yeah," Jack said suddenly, seizing the topic gladly. "She's gonna be so pissed she missed all the commotion today."

"Definitely," Carter agreed. "I bet you anything she drags Jonas off and makes him tell her every single detail within five minutes."

"_Anything?_" Jack asked. Apparently the 'inappropriate innuendo' part of his brain could restart itself much faster than the rest of it.

"Er... okay, no, not _anything..._ how about... winner gets another massage?" she suggested hopefully.

"Sweet," Jack agreed, opening the door and stepping aside to usher her out of the bedroom. He knew full well he was going to lose that bet. And he really, really didn't care.

The end.

A/N: Birthday Traditions 7 is next: 2398848


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